North, West and Central Sutherland is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes the towns and villages of Altnaharra, Ardgay, Bettyhill, Bonar Bridge, Durness, Lairg, Lochinver and Tongue. With Lairg and Bonar being the most populated settlements in the area. It elects three Councillors.
| Election | Councillors | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Linda Munro (Ind./ Liberal Democrats) | George Farlow (SNP) | Robbie Rowantree (Liberal Democrats) | |||||
| 2012 | Hugh Morrison (Ind.) | |||||||
| 2017 | Kirsteen Currie (SNP) | |||||||
| 2022 | Michael Baird (Liberal Democrats) | Marianne Hutchison (SNP) | ||||||
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| SNP | Marianne Hutchison | 35.1 | 968 | ||||||
| Liberal Democrats | Michael Baird | 28.0 | 773 | ||||||
| Independent | Hugh Morrison (incumbent) | 17.3 | 477 | 573 | 594 | 618 | 657 | 714 | |
| Conservative | Charlotte Gibson | 11.0 | 302 | 309 | 333 | 338 | 354 | 383 | |
| Labour | Clive Soley | 3.9 | 108 | 164 | 179 | 181 | 197 | ||
| Scottish Family | Philipp Tanzer | 2.9 | 80 | 92 | 96 | 107 | |||
| Freedom Alliance (UK) | Robert Alan Jardine | 1.7 | 48 | 58 | 61 | ||||
| Electorate: 4,998 Valid: 2,756 Spoilt: 32 Quota: 690 Turnout: 55.8% | |||||||||
2017 Highland Council election [4]
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | Linda Munro (incumbent) | 17.96% | 504 | 510 | 521 | 587 | 671 | 899 | |
| Independent | Hugh Morrison (incumbent) | 16.85% | 473 | 480 | 521 | 556 | 669 | 804 | |
| SNP | Kirsteen Currie | 19.81% | 556 | 564 | 571 | 612 | 681 | 689 | |
| Conservative | Russell Taylor | 19.84% | 557 | 561 | 565 | 622 | 658 | ||
| Independent | Malcolm Bangor-Jones | 11.08% | 311 | 327 | 341 | 367 | |||
| Labour | William Sinclair | 9.44% | 265 | 269 | 274 | ||||
| Independent | Michael Simpson | 3.17% | 89 | 91 | |||||
| Independent | Brendan O'Hanrahan | 1.85% | 52 | ||||||
| Electorate: TBC Valid: 2,807 Spoilt: 38 Quota: 702 Turnout: 58.0% | |||||||||
2012 Highland Council election
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||
| SNP | George Farlow (incumbent) | 26.23% | 626 | ||||||||
| Independent | Hugh Morrison | 22.5% | 537 | 541.5 | 554.9 | 563.9 | 601.3 | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | Linda Munro (incumbent)††††††††† | 18.89% | 451 | 455.6 | 478.7 | 506.8 | 529.2 | 530.5 | 566.7 | 613.4 | |
| Scottish Senior Citizens | Russell Taylor | 8.21% | 196 | 199.1 | 210.5 | 225.6 | 235.8 | 236.2 | 257.7 | 349 | |
| Independent | Neil MacInnes | 7.21% | 172 | 175.4 | 180.1 | 190.1 | 198.4 | 198.9 | 234.1 | ||
| Scottish Christian | Hector MacLennan | 5.32% | 127 | 127.9 | 129.1 | 140.2 | 147.2 | 147.6 | |||
| Conservative | Les Mason | 4.06% | 97 | 97.5 | 100.6 | ||||||
| Independent | Jess Thomas | 4.02% | 96 | 97.7 | 110.5 | 118.5 | |||||
| Scottish Green | Mandy Haggith | 3.56% | 85 | 89.9 | |||||||
| Electorate: 4,913 Valid: 2,387 Spoilt: 16 Quota: 597 Turnout: 2,403 (48.91%) | |||||||||||
2007 Highland Council election
| Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | George Farlow | 586 | 19.9 | 1 | 8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Robbie Rowantree | 410 | 14.0 | 2 | 10 | |
| Scottish Senior Citizens | Russel Taylor | 314 | 10.7 | |||
| Independent | Linda Munro | 303 | 10.3 | 3 | 10 | |
| Independent | David Forbes | 297 | 10.1 | |||
| Independent | William Johnston | 282 | 9.6 | |||
| Conservative | Margaret Payne | 216 | 7.4 | |||
| Labour | Dave Andrews | 184 | 6.3 | |||
| Scottish Green | Ailsa Spindler | 168 | 5.7 | |||
| Independent | Kirstie Dawson | 99 | 3.4 | |||
| Independent | Michael Otter | 80 | 2.7 | |||
Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It has land borders with the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Moray and Perth and Kinross. The wider upland area of the Scottish Highlands after which the council area is named extends beyond the Highland council area into all the neighbouring council areas plus Angus and Stirling.
Sutherland is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Viking era when the area was ruled by the Jarl of Orkney; although Sutherland includes some of the northernmost land on the island of Great Britain, it was called Suðrland from the standpoint of Orkney and Caithness.
Lairg is a village and parish in Sutherland, Scotland. It has a population of 891 and is at the south-eastern end of Loch Shin.
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It is the most northerly constituency on the British mainland. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Ross, Skye and Lochaber was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
The politics of the Highland council area in Scotland are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the Highland Council, in elections to the council, and in elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) and the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). In the European Parliament the area was within the Scotland constituency, which covers all of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
The Highland Council is the local authority for Highland, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The council is based at the Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering the northern part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to eight constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Inverness and Nairn is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The 2017 Highland Council election was held on 4 May 2017 to elect members of the Highland Council. The election used the 21 wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004; each ward elected three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system. A total of 74 councillors were elected, six less than in 2012.
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
East Sutherland and Edderton is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes the towns and villages of Brora, Dornoch, Edderton, Golspie and Helmsdale. It elects three Councillors.
Tain and Easter Ross is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. Between the Cromarty Firth and the Dornoch Firth and east of the Cromarty Firth ward, it includes the town of Tain and the Seaboard Villages. It elects three Councillors.
Inverness West is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes Kinmylies and Scorguie areas of urban Inverness, and a more rural area, west of the River Ness. It elects three Councillors.
Black Isle is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose. It elects three Councillors.
Dingwall and Seaforth is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes the towns of Dingwall, Conon Bridge, and Muir of Ord. It elects four Councillors.
Eilean a' Cheò is one of the twenty-one wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes the islands of Skye and Raasay. It elects four Councillors.
Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh is one of the twenty-one wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. It includes the towns and villages of Gairloch, Lochalsh, Strathpeffer and Ullapool. It elects four Councillors.
Thurso and North West Caithness is one of the 21 wards used to elect members of the Highland Council. This was a new ward in the 2017 election following boundary changes. It elects four Councillors.
Elections to The Highland Council were held on 5 May 2022, the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.
