Falkirk Council 2022

Falkirk was historically the south-eastern portion of the county of Stirling, serving as a major and early industrial centre. With the town of Falkirk itself positioned on relatively flat land near to where the River Forth widened into the Firth, it became home to one terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which helped drive that early industry. Major industry survives to the modern day, particularly with the oil refinery at Grangemouth. By the 1973 Local Government Act, the area was spun off from the wider Stirling County into its own District in the Central Region, absorbing the Bo’ness area from West Lothian at that point. It kept that shape after the 1994 reform created a single tier of local governance.

The industrialised character of Falkirk naturally inclined it towards Labour for much of the 20^th Century, though like neighbouring Clackmannanshire it was an early area of SNP growth. The disjointed Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire constituency won by the SNP in both 1974 elections included the area to the north (Larbert and Stenhousemuir) and South (Polmont and Braes) of Falkirk town. They also won majority control of the District Council in 1977, which otherwise saw Labour majorities and leads through its existence and into the current era.

Labour famously mis-stepped here ahead of the first Holyrood election in 1999 by refusing to nominate Falkirk West MP Dennis Canavan as their MSP candidate. He stood and very easily won election as an Independent at both that election and in 2003. When he retired in 2007 the seat then went to the SNP and has remained with them since since, joined by its East counterpart in 2011 and the Westminster seat in 2015.