Dumfries and Galloway Council 2022

A largely rural council covering a huge east-west stretch of southern Scotland, from which you can variously drive into England, catch the ferry to Northern Ireland, and on a clear day look south to the Isle of Man. The historic county of Dumfriesshire in the east also contains the largest town in the south of Scotland, meaning this council isn’t entirely without urban character. Although often thought of as one unit, Galloway was traditionally split into two counties – the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in the east, and Wigtownshire in the west. Much of this area is prime agricultural land, though plenty of small ports and fishing villages line the coast, and indeed one of those is my ancestral home (on one side of the family anyway).

At Westminster these areas were typically Conservative leaning, though the SNP won Galloway in October 1974 and 1997, whilst Labour took Dumfriesshire in the latter. That was initially repeated in the Scottish parliament, but the Conservatives gained the Galloway seat there in 2003 and have held it since. Labour meanwhile kept a tight hold of Dumfriesshire until the Conservatives gained it in 2016. At Westminster the Conservatives had likewise gained Galloway in 2001 as their only Scottish constituency, before effectively swapping with Labour on new boundaries in 2005. Though the SNP gained the Galloway seat from Labour in 2015, the Conservatives won it in 2017 and have therefore held the entire area in both parliaments since.

Under the previous structures, Dumfries and Galloway was a region with four districts underneath – the two Galloway counties (albeit with modified borders) whilst Dumfriesshire was split into Nithsdale and an Annandale and Eskdale district. These were typically mostly Independent, though they lost their Nithsdale majority in 1984 (to no overall control), Annandale and Eskdale in 1988 (to the Lib Dems), and regionally in 1994 (no overall control or avail, as the unitary came in the next year). They led in the first unitary election in 1995, with Labour the strongest party bloc, which repeated in 1999, before Labour took a slim minority lead in 2003.