Stranraer and the Rhins(Ward 1) is one of the twelve wards used to elect members of Dumfries and Galloway Council in Scotland. It elects four Councillors under the Single Transferable Vote system.
The ward is situated on the far west side of the region within Galloway and Wigtownshire. The dominant settlement is Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway’s second largest town. Other settlements include the ferry port of Cairnryan and villages in the Rhins of Galloway peninsula including Ardwell, Drummore, Kirkcolm, Leswalt, Port Logan, Portpatrick, Sandhead, and Stoneykirk. The ward includes Dumfries and Galloway’s largest secondary school, Stranraer Academy, as well as Scotland’s most southernly point. Stranraer and the Rhins has an electorate of 11,615.
| Election | Councillors | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Willie Scobie (Ind.) | John Dougan (Conservative) | Iain William Dick (SNP) | 3 seats | ||||
| 2012 | Marion McCutcheon (Labour) | |||||||
| 2017 [2] | Tommy Sloan (Labour, later Ind.) | Ros Surtees (SNP) | Andrew Giusti (Conservative) | |||||
| 2022 [3] | Chrissie Hill (Conservative) | Ben Dashper (SNP) | ||||||
2022 Dumfries and Galloway Council Election [4]
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| Conservative | Andrew Giusti (incumbent) | 32.12 | 1,518 | |||||||
| SNP | Ben Dashper | 22.72 | 1,074 | |||||||
| Independent | Willie Scobie (incumbent) | 22.23 | 1,051 | |||||||
| Conservative | Chrissie Hill | 7.15 | 338 | 804.03 | 806.97 | 816.63 | 833.03 | 861.44 | 1,025.85 | |
| Labour | John McCutcheon | 9.69 | 458 | 478.73 | 511.27 | 523.00 | 582.42 | 660.67 | ||
| Scottish Green | Peter Richard Barlow | 2.53 | 120 | 126.65 | 180.97 | 187.14 | ||||
| Independent | Tommy Sloan (incumbent) | 1.2 | 59 | |||||||
| Electorate: 11,398 Valid: 4,618 Spoilt: 108 Quota: 924 Turnout: 41.5 | ||||||||||
2017 Dumfries and Galloway Council election
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| Independent | Willie Scobie (incumbent) | 36.53 | 1,925 | |||||||
| Conservative | Andrew Giusti | 32.31 | 1,703 | |||||||
| SNP | Ros Surtees | 14.52 | 765 | 869.4 | 884.62 | 903.35 | 919.09 | 953.34 | 1,013.39 | |
| Labour | Tommy Sloan | 5.92 | 312 | 589.94 | 661.86 | 694.11 | 723.69 | 774.28 | 912.14 | |
| Independent | Tracy Davidson | 3.43 | 181 | 251.95 | 317.4 | 338.72 | 381.51 | |||
| Independent | Marion McCutcheon (incumbent) | 3.15 | 166 | 259.55 | 332.23 | 363.55 | 418.26 | 533.25 | ||
| Independent | Robert McCrae | 2.33 | 123 | 164.13 | 231.48 | 242.73 | ||||
| Scottish Libertarian | Chris Collings | 1.80 | 95 | 134.77 | 174.72 | |||||
| Electorate: 11,382 Valid: 5,270 Spoilt: 80 Quota: 1,055 Turnout: 46.3 | ||||||||||
2012 Dumfries and Galloway Council election [5]
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Independent | Willie Scobie (incumbent) | 62.15 | 2,057 | |||
| Conservative | John Dougan (incumbent) | 15.02 | 497 | 643.9 | ||
| SNP | Iain Dick (incumbent) | 13.60 | 450 | 678.8 | 836.62 | |
| Labour | Marion McCutcheon | 9.24 | 306 | 679.4 | 808.2 | |
| Electorate: 7,185 Valid: 3,310 Spoilt: 38 Quota: 828 Turnout: 3,348 (46.07%) | ||||||
2007 Dumfries and Galloway Council election [6]
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||
| Labour | Willie Scobie | 25.8 | 1,006 | |||||
| Conservative | John Dougan | 23.9 | 932 | 933.46 | 1,018.91 | |||
| SNP | Iain William Dick | 18.0 | 702 | 703.46 | 805.61 | 812.48 | 1,114.69 | |
| Independent | Ian McIntyre | 17.2 | 668 | 669.27 | 752.93 | 773.26 | ||
| Labour | Tommy Sloan | 15.0 | 584 | 606.93 | ||||
| Electorate: 7,350 Valid: 3,892 Spoilt: 84 Quota: 974 Turnout: 54.1% | ||||||||
Dumfries and Galloway is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the north-east; the English county of Cumbria, the Solway Firth, and the Irish Sea to the south, and the North Channel to the west. The administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Dumfries. The second largest town is Stranraer, located 76 miles (122 km) to the west of Dumfries on the North Channel coast.
Stranraer, also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries and Galloway's second-largest town, with a population of 10,593.
Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has formed part of Dumfries and Galloway for local government purposes. Wigtownshire continues to be used as a territory for land registration, being a registration county. The historic county is all within the slightly larger Wigtown Area, which is one of the lieutenancy areas of Scotland and was used in local government as the Wigtown District from 1975 to 1996.
Lochans is a small village around 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Stranraer, in Dumfries and Galloway in south-west Scotland. In 1971 it had a population of 355.
Dumfries and Galloway is a constituency in Scotland represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by John Cooper of the Scottish Conservatives since the 2024 general election. It was first contested in the 2005 general election, replacing Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and part of Dumfries. Like all British constituencies, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. Despite its name, it does not cover the whole of the Dumfries and Galloway council area.
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale is a constituency of the House of Commons, located in the South of Scotland, within the Dumfries and Galloway, South Lanarkshire and Scottish Borders council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting. It is currently represented in Westminster by the former Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, a Conservative, who has been the MP since 2005.
Galloway and West Dumfries is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is also one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Inch is a civil parish in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. It lies on the shore of Loch Ryan, in the traditional county of Wigtownshire.
Mid Galloway and Wigtown West is one of the twelve wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council in Scotland. It elects four Councillors under the Single transferable vote system.
Castle Douglas and Crocketford is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects three Councillors.
Abbey is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects four Councillors.
North West Dumfries is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects four Councillors.
Mid and Upper Nithsdale is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects three Councillors.
Lochar is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects four Councillors.
Nith is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects four Councillors.
Annandale South is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects four Councillors.
Annandale North is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects four Councillors.
Annandale East and Eskdale is one of the thirteen wards used to elect members of the Dumfries and Galloway Council. It elects three Councillors.
Clydesdale East is one of the 20 electoral wards of South Lanarkshire Council. Created in 2007, the ward elects three councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system and covers an area with a population of 13,165 people
William Scobie is a Scottish politician who has served as a councillor in Dumfries and Galloway for the last 32 years. He has served as a councillor for Stranraer and the Rhins since 3 May 2007. Prior to the introduction of Single transferable vote in 2007, he served as a ward councillor for Knockcullie for Wigtownshire District Council from 1992 to 1995, and for Dumfries and Galloway Council from 1995 to 2007.
