1995 South Lanarkshire Council election

1995 South Lanarkshire Council election

6 April 1995 (1995-04-06) 1999 →
All 73 seats to South Lanarkshire Council 37 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Lab SNP Leader Tom McCabe Party Labour SNP Leader's seat Larkhall West Last election 37 seats, 45.5%[Note 1] 6 seats, 25.3%[Note 2] Seats won 60 8 Seat change 23 2 Popular vote 61,452 28,918 Percentage 57.1% 26.9% Swing 11.6 1.6   Third party Fourth party   LD Con Party Liberal Democrats Conservative Last election 3 seats, 9.6%[Note 3] 7 seats, 15.8%[Note 4] Seats won 2 2 Seat change 1 5 Popular vote 7,705 7,559 Percentage 7.1% 7.0% Swing 2.5 8.8
Council Leader after election Tom McCabe Labour

The first elections to South Lanarkshire Council were held on 6 April 1995, on the same day as the 28 other Scottish local government elections. The council was created from the former Clydesdale, East Kilbride and Hamilton district councils plus the four wards of the City of Glasgow District Council in Rutherglen and Cambuslang and assumed some of the responsibilities of the former Strathclyde Regional Council following the implementation of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.

The election was the first since the Second Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements which was initially meant to decide boundaries for the district and regional councils. After the district councils were abolished by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the review was instead used to decide boundaries for the newly created unitary authority in Clydesdale, East Kilbride and Hamilton. As a result, there remained 16 seats covering the former Clydesdale District while 20 seats were established for the former East Kilbride District, an increase of four, and 25 seats were established for the former Hamilton District, five more than had been in use since the Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1981. In Rutherglen and Cambuslang, the proposed new wards were disregarded by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland Allan Stewart who created 13 new wards.^[1][2][3]

Labour took control of the council after winning 60 of the 72 wards which were up for election. The Scottish National Party (SNP) took eight seats while the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives both won two seats.