1981 Newtownabbey Borough Council election

← 1977

20 May 1981 (1981-05-20)

1985 →

All 21 seats to Newtownabbey Borough Council
11 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Party	UUP	DUP	Alliance
Seats won	9	5	3
Seat change	1	1	3

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Party	Ind. Unionist	Newtownabbey Labour	Unionist Party NI
Seats won	3	1	0
Seat change	3	0	1

	Seventh party

Party	Loyalist
Seats won	0
Seat change	1

Elections to Newtownabbey Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 21 councillors.

Newtownabbey Borough Council Election Result 1981^[1]
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
UUP	9	2	1	1	42.9	34.5	9,210	3.6
DUP	5	1	0	1	23.8	34.7	9,275	15.8
Alliance	3	0	3	3	14.3	15.6	4,174	5.3
Ind. Unionist	3	3	0	3	9.5	8.8	2,356	8.8
Newtownabbey Labour Party	1	0	0	0	4.8	3.8	1,028	1.3
Republican Clubs	0	0	0	0	0.0	1.4	375	0.5
Independent	0	0	0	0	0.0	1.2	323	1.2
Communist	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	32	0.1

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

Results of the Newtownabbey Borough Council election, 1981
by district
Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
UUP	DUP	Alliance	Others
Area A	45.3	2	32.2	2	10.8	0	11.7	1	5
Area B	37.0	2	34.8	1	11.6	1	16.6	1	6
Area C	34.2	2	33.7	1	19.1	1	13.0	0	5
Area D	25.2	2	37.3	1	17.5	1	20.0	1	5
Total	34.5	9	34.7	5	15.6	3	15.2	4	21

Districts results

Area A

1977: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance
1981: 2 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x Independent Unionist
1977-1981 Change: DUP and Independent Unionist gain from UUP and Alliance

Newtownabbey Area A - 5 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4
	UUP	Jim Wilson*	16.62%	850	951
	UUP	Arthur Templeton*	14.82%	758	832	872
	DUP	Trevor Kirkland	16.23%	830	852	853
	DUP	Mary Harkness*	16.00%	818	833	836	836.73
	Ind. Unionist	Sidney Cameron*	11.69%	598	760	789	799.22
	UUP	John Anderson	13.88%	710	762	786	794.03
	Alliance	Pat McCudden*	10.75%	550
Electorate: 8,958 Valid: 5,114 (57.09%) Spoilt: 129 Quota: 853 Turnout: 5,243 (58.53%)

Area B

1977: 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Newtownabbey Labour, 1 x Loyalist
1981: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Newtownabbey Labour
1977-1981 Change: Loyalist joins UUP

Newtownabbey Area B - 6 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6
	DUP	David Hanna	34.78%	1,964
	UUP	Fraser Agnew	19.30%	1,090
	UUP	Letitia McCartney	9.69%	547	1,176.37
	UUP	Cecil Stringer*	7.97%	450	809.1
	Newtownabbey Labour	Robert Kidd*	7.67%	433	510.49	590.5	660.04	801.23	983.23
	Alliance	John Elliott*	6.42%	363	392.61	453.09	583.62	595.42	653.68
	Alliance	Hugh Montgomery	5.15%	291	307.38	351.48	409.62	417.08	445.11
	Republican Clubs	Austin Kelly	6.64%	375	378.78	381.93	384.78	396.78
	Newtownabbey Labour	Alistair Keery	1.81%	102	123.42	151.14	169.38
	Communist	William Stewart	0.57%	32	33.89	40.19	41.33
Electorate: 12,043 Valid: 5,647 (46.89%) Spoilt: 273 Quota: 807 Turnout: 5,920 (49.16%)

Area C

1977: 2 x Alliance, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x UPNI
1981: 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist
1977-1981 Change: UUP and Independent Unionist gain from Alliance and UPNI

Newtownabbey Area C - 5 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6
	DUP	Samuel Neill*	33.68%	2,737
	UUP	Clifford Forsythe	18.45%	1,499
	UUP	Robert Caul*	15.71%	1,277	2,242.25
	Ind. Unionist	Desmond Dowds	9.93%	807	1,107.85	1,401
	Alliance	Claire Martin*	6.89%	560	608.4	665.6	744.85	786.07	1,103.26
	Alliance	George Jones*	6.57%	534	548.3	634.1	752.8	816.34	1,044.29
	Alliance	Gordon Mawhinney	5.66%	460	488.05	523.8	555.65	593.99
	Newtownabbey Labour	Brian Caul	3.10%	252	275.65	328.45
Electorate: 15,006 Valid: 8,126 (54.15%) Spoilt: 206 Quota: 1,355 Turnout: 8,332 (55.52%)

Area D

1977: 2 x Alliance, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1981: 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist
1977-1981 Change: Independent Unionist gain from Alliance

Newtownabbey Area D - 5 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	DUP	James Smith*	37.29%	2,926
	Ind. Unionist	George Herron*	12.12%	951	1,557.1
	UUP	Ivan Hunter	12.10%	949	1,282.5	1,406.26
	Alliance	James Rooney*	13.61%	1,068	1,091.2	1,096.14	1,096.62	1,193.2	1,793.2
	UUP	Arthur Kell*	7.14%	560	781.56	833.04	914.4	926.24	993.24	1,169.24
	UUP	William McKee*	6.63%	520	889.46	942.5	955.94	962.68	991.52	1,065.52
	Independent	John Drysdale*	4.12%	323	330.54	333.66	333.9	396.48
	Alliance	John Smith	3.93%	308	337.58	341.22	341.94	376.68
	Newtownabbey Labour	Thomas Davidson	1.87%	147	159.76	161.84	161.84
	Newtownabbey Labour	Lindsay Prior	1.20%	94	96.5	97.16	97.4
Electorate: 14,796 Valid: 7,846 (53.03%) Spoilt: 263 Quota: 1,308 Turnout: 8,109 (54.81%)

v t e Council elections in County Antrim
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council	2014 2019 2023
Belfast City Council	1887 1897 1899 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1920 1924 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 2014 2019 2023
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council	2014 2019 2023
Lisburn and Castlereagh District Council	2014 2019 2023
Mid and East Antrim District Council	2014 2019 2023
Antrim Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Ballymena Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Ballymoney Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Carrickfergus Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Larne Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Lisburn City Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Moyle District Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Newtownabbey Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Antrim County Council	1899 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1920 1924 1927 1930 1933 1937 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 Abolished

v t e (1980 ←) 1981 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1982)
County councils (England)	Avon Bedfordshire Berkshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cleveland Cornwall Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Hereford and Worcester Hertfordshire Humberside Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Norfolk North Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Warwickshire West Sussex Wiltshire
County councils (Wales)	Clwyd Dyfed Gwent Gwynedd Mid Glamorgan Powys South Glamorgan West Glamorgan
Metropolitan counties	Greater Manchester Merseyside South Yorkshire Tyne and Wear West Midlands West Yorkshire
Unicameral area	Greater London
District councils (Northern Ireland)	Antrim Ards Armagh Ballymena Ballymoney Banbridge Belfast Carrickfergus Castlereagh Coleraine Cookstown Craigavon Down Dungannon Fermanagh Larne Limavady Lisburn Londonderry Magherafelt Moyle Newry and Mourne Newtownabbey North Down Omagh Strabane
Sui generis	Isles of Scilly