Cromarty Firth (ward)

Location of the ward ^[1]

Cromarty Firth is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It consists of North of the Cromarty Firth, west of the Tain and Easter Ross ward

Includes the towns of Alness, Evanton and Invergordon. It elects four Councillors.

In April 2025, Councillor Maxine Smith resigned for personal reasons. ^[2]

Councillors

Election	Councillors
2007		Carolyn Wilson (Ind.)		Mike Minlayson (Ind.)		Maxine Morley-Smith (SNP/ Highland Matters)		Martin Rattay (Liberal Democrats)
2012
2017			Pauline Munro (SNP/ Highland Matters)
2022				Molly Nolan (Liberal Democrats)				Tamala Collier (SNP)
Sept 2024		John Edmondson (Liberal Democrats)	Sinclair Coghill (Independent)
April 2025				Vacant [3]
June 2025				Richard Cross (Independent)

Election results

2025 by-election

Cromarty Firth by-election (19 June 2025) - 1 seat

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	SNP	Odette MacDonald	23.8	568	570	584	627	667	709	749	812
	Independent	Richard James Cross	21.1	503	512	518	529	544	646	740	986	1,211
	Independent	Martin Rattray	15.4	368	374	383	389	393	454	524
	Reform UK	Allan Macdonald	14.6	348	356	362	369	372	396
	Liberal Democrats	Ross Costigane	12.2	290	298	323	329	349
	Green	Anne Thomas	3.9	92	93	98	101
	Alba	Steve Chisolm	3.8	91	92	93
	Labour	Michael Robert Perera	3.2	77	79
	Conservative	Ryan Forbes	2.0	48
Electorate: 9,774  Valid: 2,385  Spoilt: 25  Quota: 1,193  Turnout: 24.7%

Source: ^{[4] [5]}

2024 by-election

Cromarty Firth by-election (26 September 2024) - 2 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Liberal Democrats	John Edmondson	20.3	481	481	493	498	531	544	557	573	641	714	806
	SNP	Odette MacDonald	17.0	403	404	404	406	417	451	457	498	510	550
	Independent	Sinclair Coghill	13.7	326	327	334	343	345	353	379	416	512	685	800
	Independent	Martin Rattray	13.6	323	323	332	338	346	350	381	422	491
	Independent	Richard Cross	12.0	285	285	291	303	305	310	316	341
	Independent	Brideen Godley-MacKenzie	6.8	162	162	166	170	172	181	193
	Independent	Tina McCaffery	4.1	97	98	101	105	107	109
	Green	Ryan Barrowman	3.7	89	89	89	90	95
	Labour	Michael Perera	3.2	77	77	82	83
	Conservative	Innes Munro	2.4	57	59
	Reform UK	Kim Jackson	2.2	52	70	72
	Reform UK	Roland Jackson	1.0	23
Electorate: 9,932  Valid: 2,375  Spoilt: 45  Quota: 792  Turnout: 24.6%

Source: ^{[6] [7]}

2022 election

Main article: 2022 Highland Council election

Cromarty Firth - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	SNP	Tamala Collier	29.1	1,127
	Liberal Democrats	Molly Nolan	27.9	1,079
	Independent	Pauline Munro (incumbent)	17.5	679	749	804
	Independent	Maxine Morley-Smith (incumbent)	7.3	283	323	355	370	383	446	498	575	705
	Conservative	Andrew Phillip Baxter [note 1]	6.7	261	266	315	315	322	346	350	397
	Labour	Kirsty Stewart	4.2	162	194	238	239	249	267	343
	Independent	Kate Stevenson	3.1	122	135	174	178	192
	Green	Daniel Reat	2.9	112	223	243	244	247	260
	Independent	Eric Fraser	1.1	45	54	64	65
Electorate: 9,918  Valid: 3,870  Spoilt: 58  Quota: 775  Turnout: 39.6%

Source: ^{[8] [9]}

2017 election

2017 Highland Council election ^[10]

Cromarty Firth - 4 seats ^{[11] [12]}

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Independent	Carolyn Wilson (incumbent)	27.01%	1,108
	SNP	Pauline Munro	19.53%	801	828
	Independent	Mike Finlayson (incumbent)	9.87%	405	483	483	532	567	639	773	1,047
	SNP	Maxine Smith (incumbent)	14.12%	579	599	604	615	624	660	674	741
	Independent	Martin Rattray (incumbent)	7.85%	322	378	378	399	422	498	591
	Conservative	Ian Smith	8.43%	346	368	368	373	390	468
	Liberal Democrats	Mary MacDonald	6.78	278	303	303	320	360
	Labour	Bill Curran	3.78%	155	162	162	170
	Independent	Sheila Fletcher	2.63%	108	122	122
Electorate: TBC  Valid: 4,102  Spoilt: 65  Quota: 821  Turnout: 43.4%

2012 election

2012 Highland Council election

Cromarty Firth - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Independent	Carolyn Wilson (incumbent)	23.60%	768
	SNP	Maxine Smith (incumbent)	17.95%	584	604.7	606.9	660.8
	SNP	Sheila Fletcher	14.26%	464	469.5	470.6	489.2	494.9	547.95
	Independent	Mike Finlayson (incumbent)	11.95%	389	429.4	452.3	519	519.8	621.3	777.1
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Rattray (incumbent)†††	11.09%	361	378.7	394.6	481.4	483.4	547.96	630.9
	Labour	John McInnes	9.96%	324	332.2	336.5	367.4	367.9
	Independent	Tina Deborah McCaffery	9.19%	299	307.1	313.2
	Conservative	Jane Rous	1.99%	65	68.5
Electorate: 9,456  Valid: 3,254  Spoilt: 65  Quota: 651  Turnout: 3,319 (35.1%)

2007 election

2007 Highland Council election

The Highland Council election, 2007: Cromarty Firth

Party		Candidate	FPv%	%	Seat	Count
	Independent	Carolyn Wilson	1,348	29.7	1	1
	SNP	Maxine Smith	1,021	22.5	2	1
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Rattray	647	14.3	3	7
	Independent	Mike Finlayson	438	9.7	4	9
	Labour	John MacInnes	438	9.7
	Independent	John Connell	307	6.8
	Conservative	Hamish Keir	141	3.1
	Independent	Mary MacDonald	104	2.3
	Solidarity	Findlay Walker	88	1.9

Notes

1. Sitting councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan.

References

1. "Scottish Boundary Commission | he Boundary Commission for Scotland is responsible for reviews of UK Parliament constituencies in Scotland". Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
2. "Highland councillor Maxine Smith hits out at trolls as she quits". BBC News. 1 April 2025. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
3. "Highland councillor Maxine Smith hits out at trolls as she quits". BBC News. 1 April 2025. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
4. "Ward 6 - Cromarty Firth Results 2025 Declaration Of Results Report". The Highland Council. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
5. "Ward 6 - Cromarty Firth Results 2025 Candidate Votes Per Stage Report". The Highland Council. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
6. "Declaration of Results Report Ward 6 Cromarty Firth". Highland Council. 27 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
7. "Candidate Votes Per Stage Report Ward 6 Cromarty Firth". Highland Council. 27 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
8. "2022 local government election results Ward 6 Cromarty Firth Report - declaration of results". Highland Council. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
9. "2022 local government election results Ward 6 Cromarty Firth Report - candidate votes per stage". Highland Council. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
10. "Community Council elections".
11. Council, The Highland. "The Highland Council download - 2017 Council elections Ward 6 Cromarty Firth - Council and government". www.highland.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
12. Council, The Highland. "The Highland Council download - 2017 Council elections Ward 6 Cromarty Firth - Council and government". www.highland.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2019.