1974 West Lothian District Council election
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All 21 seats to West Lothian District Council 11 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections to West Lothian District Council were held on 7 May 1974, on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. This was the first election to the district council following the implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
The election used the 21 wards created by the Formation Electoral Arrangements in 1974. Each ward elected one councillor using first-past-the-post voting.[1]
Labour took control of the council after winning a majority. The party took 12 of the 21 seats and more than 40% of the popular vote. The Scottish National Party (SNP) won six seats and two independent candidates were elected.
Prior to 1974, the area that was to become West Lothian was split between two counties – Midlothian and West Lothian. Within that were four of the six burghs of West Lothian (Armadale, Bathgate, Linlithgow and Whitburn). These were all small burghs so had limited powers which included some control over planning as well as local taxation, building control, housing, lighting and drainage. The rest of the local government responsibility fell to the county council which had full control over the areas which were not within a burgh. [2]
Following the recommendations in the Wheatly Report, the old system of counties and burghs – which had resulted in a mishmash of local government areas in which some small burghs had larger populations but far fewer responsibilities than some large burghs and even counties[2] – was to be replaced by a new system of regional and district councils. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 implemented most of the recommendations in the Wheatly Report. The western part of West Lothian which included the four burghs was combined with the western part of Midlothian and was placed into the West Lothian district within the Lothian region.[2][3]
