Aberdeen City Council
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Aberdeen City Council
Location
Geography
Area	Ranked 25
- Total	71.22 sq mi (184.5 km2)
- % Water	?
Admin HQ	Aberdeen
ISO 3166-2	GB-ABE
ONS code	00QA
Demographics
Population	Ranked 8th
- Total (2007)	209,300
- Density	1,125 /km² (2,910 /sq mi)
Politics
Aberdeen City Council aberdeencity.gov.uk
Control	Liberal Democrat/Scottish National Party
MPs	Frank Doran Anne Begg Malcolm Bruce
MSPs	Brian Adam Lewis Macdonald Nicol Stephen

Council logo

The Politics of Aberdeen, Scotland have changed significantly in recent years. In 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, Grampian Regional Council was dissolved, creating the new unitary Aberdeen City Council to represent the city's council area. Aberdeen City Council no longer has any direct control over the neighbouring area of Aberdeenshire, although the headquarters of Aberdeenshire Council remain located within the city.

Aberdeen City Council

Aberdeen City Council represents the Aberdeen City council area of Scotland.

The council area was created in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. However, a sense of Aberdeen as a city, with its own city council, can be traced back to 1900, when the city of county of Aberdeen was created.

In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the county of city was combined with Bucksburn, Newhills, Old Machar, Stoneywood, Dyce and Peterculter areas of the county of Aberdeen and a Nigg area of the county of Kincardine (including Cove Bay) to form the Aberdeen district of the Grampian region. This district became the now existing unitary council area in 1996.

On 9th May 1995 by resolution under section 23 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The City of Aberdeen Council changed the name of the local government area of "City of Aberdeen" to "Aberdeen City".

Composition

Between 2003 and 2007 the council was under the control of a Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition, holding 23 of the 43 seats on the council. Prior to the 2003 election, the council had been considered a Labour stronghold¹. Following the May 2007 election, contested for the first time using a system of proportional representation, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party (SNP) formed a coalition to run the council, holding 27 of the 43 seats (following an SNP by election gain from the Conservatives on 16 August 2007, the Lib Dem/SNP coalition now hold 28 of the 43 seats).

Aberdeen City Council comprises forty-three councillors who represent the city's wards and is headed by the Lord Provost who is currently Provost Peter Stephen.

Current political composition: (+/- by election changes since May 2007 election)

• Liberal Democrat - 15 councillors
• Scottish National Party - 13 councillors (+1)
• Labour - 10 councillors
• Conservative - 4 councillors (-1)
• Independent - 1 councillor

New wards from May 2007

Before May 2007, councillors represented 43 single-member wards, but since then,all seats were contested by a different electoral system. On May 5th 2007, it was the first election to use the single transferable vote system of election and multi-member wards, each ward electing three or four councillors. The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland completed its final recommendations for new wards for all the council areas of Scotland and for Aberdeen there will be 13 multi-member wards with a total of 43 councillors. This system was introduced as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, and is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.²

The composition of wards have changed to:

3 councillors:

• (11) Airyhall/Broomhill/Garthdee
• (8) George Street/Harbour
• (5) Hilton/Stockethill
• (13) Kincorth/Loirston
• (3) Kingswells/Sheddocksley
• (9) Lower Deeside
• (7) Midstocket/Rosemount
• (4) Northfield
• (6) Tillydrone/Hilton/Old Aberdeen

4 councillors:

• (2) Bridge of Don
• (1) Dyce/Bucksburn/Danestone
• (10) Hazlehead/Ashley/Queens Cross
• (12) Torry/Ferryhill

The most recent results from this election were as followed:

Composition (before May 2007)

The previous composition of 43 wards while using the standard First Past the Post voting system. Their representative counsellors and political parties were:

UK Parliament

In the United Kingdom Parliament, the city is divided between three constituencies:

Scottish Parliament

There are three Scottish Parliament constituencies that overlap the Aberdeen City Council area in the North East Scotland electoral region:

Other MSPs in the North East Scotland electoral region (but selected by the Additional Member proportional representation system, and not in constituencies overlapping Aberdeen City or the Aberdeen City Council area) are:

European Parliament

In the European Parliament, Scotland as a whole (and therefore Aberdeen) is represented by seven MEPs:

Twinned cities

Aberdeen is twinned with several cities across Europe and throughout the rest of the world.³ These include:

References

External links

• Council website

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