2012 Falkirk Council election

Main article: 2012 Scottish local elections

2012 Falkirk Council election

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All 32 seats to Falkirk Council 17 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Craig Martin David Alexander Party Labour SNP Leader's seat Carse, Kinnaird & Tryst Falkirk North Last election 14 seats, 43.8% 13 seats, 40.6% Seats before 14 13 Seats won 14 13 Seat change 0 0   Third party Fourth party   Leader Billy Buchannan John Patrick Party Independent Conservative Leader's seat Bonnybridge and Larbert Falkirk South Last election 3 seats, 9.4% 2 seats, 6.3% Seats before 1 2 Seats won 1 2 Seat change 0 0 Swing Independent Group Leader – Robert Spears Seat – Grangemouth Seats – 2
Council Leader before election Craig Martin Labour Council Leader after election Craig Martin Labour

Elections to Falkirk Council were held on 3 May 2012, the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election used the nine wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 32 councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the STV electoral system.

The election saw Labour remain the largest party on the Council despite being outpolled in terms of votes by the Scottish National Party. The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party saw their vote share fall but held their Council seats and Independents returned 3 seats as they did in the 2007 Local Elections.

Following the election, the controlling administration consists of 14 Labour members, 2 Conservative and 1 Independent (Cllr Buchanan). Opposition is 13 SNP members and 2 Independent (Cllrs Spears and McCabe). The Council Leader is Cllr Craig C Martin, Provost is Cllr Reid and the Depute Provost Cllr Patrick.

Election result

Falkirk local election result 2012

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	14	-	-	-	43.75	37.74	16,150	+1.54
	SNP	13	-	-	-	40.63	40.48	17,321	+5.38
	Independent	3	-	-	-	9.4	10.54	4,512	-1.36
	Conservative	2	-	-	-	6.3	11.23	4,806	-2.27

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Ward results

Bo'ness and Blackness

• 2007: 2xSNP; 1xLab
• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xLab
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Bo'ness and Blackness – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	SNP	Ann Ritchie (incumbent)	37.67	1,526
	Labour	Adrian Mahoney (incumbent)	21.03	852	900.1	1,010.8	1,780.8
	Labour	David Aitchison	20.39	826	850.9	910.2
	SNP	Sandy Turner (incumbent)	11.40	462	848.3	915.9	956.1
	Conservative	Lynn Munro	9.50	385	401.5
Electorate: 11,250  Valid: 4,051  Spoilt: 79  Quota: 1,013  Turnout: 4,130 (36.01%)

Grangemouth

• 2007: 2xLab; 1xSNP; 1xIndependent
• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP; 1xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Grangemouth – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Labour	Allyson Black (incumbent)	24.68	1,201
	SNP	David Balfour	22.58	1,099
	Independent	Robert Spears (incumbent)	17.71	862	877.9	882.4	963.6	1,064.6
	Labour	Joan Paterson	10.33	503	675.4	678.6	695.6	725.8	739.3	815.4	978.4
	SNP	Andrew Cowie	8.69	423	432.3	538.8	562.2	596.2	608.9	683.7
	Conservative	Amanda Nicol	5.73	279	285	286.3	309.8
	Independent	Jim Waugh	5.59	272	275.4	277.4	331.6	377.9	412.7
	Independent	David Sharp	4.68	228	231.6	233.4
Electorate: 12,350  Valid: 4,867  Spoilt: 124  Quota: 974  Turnout: 4,991 (39.41%)

Denny and Banknock

• 2007: 2xSNP; 1xLab; 1xIndependent
• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xLab; 1xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Denny and Banknock – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SNP	John McNally (incumbent)†	28.23	1,502
	Labour	Jim Blackwood (incumbent)	22.35	1,189
	Independent	Brian McCabe	11.69	622	676.9	680.9	714.1	801.2	977.6	1,133.3
	SNP	Martin D. Oliver (incumbent)	10.73	571	870.1	879.4	900.1	972.5	1,062.6	1,148
	Labour	Terrie Hay	8.33	443	459	539.7	563.2	614.7	684.9
	Independent	Alexander John Waddell (incumbent)	7.72	411	433.1	439.6	480.2	539.5
	Independent	Khalid Hamid	7.27	387	398.9	406.4	428.2
	Conservative	David Grant	3.70	197	200.7	204.5
Electorate: 12,350  Valid: 5,321  Spoilt: 95  Quota: 1,065  Turnout: 5,416 (39.45%)

Carse, Kinnaird & Tryst

• 2007: 2xLab; 2xSNP
• 2012: 2xLab; 2xSNP
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Carse, Kinnaird & Tryst – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	Labour	Charles MacDonald (incumbent)	26.28	1,377
	Labour	Craig Martin (incumbent)	25.42	1,332
	SNP	Stephen Bird	23.61	1,237
	SNP	Steven Carleschi (incumbent)	17.33	908	986.1	1,052.9
	Conservative	Jim Flynn	7.35	385	437.3	480.8
Electorate: 14,121  Valid: 5,239  Spoilt: 86  Quota: 1,048  Turnout: 5,325 (37.1%)

Bonnybridge and Larbert

• 2007: 1xSNP; 1xIndependent; 1xLab
• 2012: 1xSNP; 1xLab; 1xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Bonnybridge and Larbert – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	SNP	Tom Coleman (incumbent)	30.95	1,387
	Labour	Linda Gow (incumbent)	27.56	1,235
	Independent	Billy Buchanan (incumbent)	22.72	1,018	1,042.7	1,073.3	1,138.4
	Conservative	Elliot Roy	8.39	379	385	394.2	430.1
	SNP	Lynda Kenna *	6.67	299	493.8	512.9	560.8
	Independent	Chris Harley	3.70	166	176.7	192.6
Electorate: 11,746  Valid: 4,481  Spoilt: 71  Quota: 1,121  Turnout: 4,552 (38.15%)

• Sitting Councillor from a different ward.

Falkirk North

• 2007: 2xLab; 2xSNP
• 2012: 2xSNP; 2xLab
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Falkirk North – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	SNP	David Alexander (incumbent)	36.46	1,915
	Labour	Craig Martin (incumbent)	20.98	1,102
	Labour	Pat Reid (incumbent)	19.25	1,011	1,070.6
	SNP	Cecil Meiklejohn (incumbent)	16.73	879	1,604.5
	Conservative	Robert Edward Ardis	6.59	346	361.8
Electorate: 13,878  Valid: 5,253  Spoilt: 129  Quota: 1,051  Turnout: 5,382 (37.85%)

Falkirk South

• 2007: 2xLab; 1xSNP; 1xCon
• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP; 1xCon
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Falkirk South – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Labour	Dennis Goldie	23.96	1,279
	SNP	Colin Chalmers	21.74	1,160
	Conservative	John Patrick (incumbent)	15.76	841	844.6	846.9	856.9	984.9	998.4	1,212.7
	Labour	Gerry Goldie (incumbent)	15.72	839	1,025.6	1,031.5	1,039.5	1,184.9
	SNP	Georgie Thomson (incumbent)	12.59	672	675.3	748.1	754.7	854.3	874.9
	Independent	Joe Lemetti (incumbent)	8.71	465	472.3	477.6	519.9
	Independent	Hugh McGinlay	1.52	81	81.3	82.4
Electorate: 13,207  Valid: 5,337  Spoilt: 100  Quota: 1,068  Turnout: 5,437 (40.41%)

Lower Braes

• 2007: 1xCon; 1xSNP; 1xLab
• 2012: 1xCon; 1xSNP; 1xLab
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Lower Braes – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Conservative	Malcolm Nicol (incumbent)	35.99	1,447
	SNP	Steven Jackson (incumbent)	31.32	1,259
	Labour	Alan Nimmo (incumbent)	27.78	1,117
	SNP	Robbie Landsman	4.90	197
Electorate: 9,948  Valid: 4,020  Spoilt: 100  Quota: 1,068  Turnout: 4,120 (40.41%)

Upper Braes

• 2007: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Upper Braes – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Labour	John McLuckie (incumbent)	32.26	1,361
	SNP	Gordon Hughes (incumbent)	29.79	1,257
	SNP	Ricky Wilson	13.46	568	592.5	757.9	862.9
	Conservative	Alan Rust	13.04	550	565.5	573.5
	Labour	Rosie Murray	11.45	483	712.3	725.3	905.9	1,176.5
Electorate: 11,033  Valid: 4,219  Spoilt: 101  Quota: 1,055  Turnout: 4,320 (38.24%)

References

Scottish Local Government Elections 2012

Post-Election Changes

• † Denny and Banknock SNP Cllr John McNally was elected as an MP for Falkirk on 7 May 2015. He resigned his Council seat in June and a by-election was held on 13 August 2015 which was held by the SNP's Paul Garner.

By-elections since 2012

Denny and Banknock By-election (13 August 2015) – 1 Seat ^[1]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	SNP	Paul Garner	69.1%	2,576
	Labour	Andrew Bell	14.7%	549
	Conservative	David Grant	11.6%	431
	Green	Brian Capaloff	4.6%	170
Electorate: 14,462  Valid: 3,726  Spoilt: 34  Quota: 1,864  Turnout: 3,760 (26.1%)

1. "By-election results – Ward 3 – Denny and Banknock – 13 August 2015 | Falkirk Council". falkirk.gov.uk.