Rutherglen South (ward)

Rutherglen South 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 15,322 people.

Rutherglen South
South Lanarkshire
Boundary of Rutherglen South in South Lanarkshire from 2007–2017.
Population	15,322 (2021)[1]
Electorate	11,697 (2022)
Major settlements	Rutherglen (part of)
Scottish Parliament constituency	Rutherglen
Scottish Parliament region	Glasgow
UK Parliament constituency	Rutherglen
Current ward
Created	2007 (2007)
Number of councillors	3
Councillor	Carol Nugent (SNP)
Councillor	Robert Brown (Liberal Democrats)
Councillor	Margaret Cowie (Labour)
Created from	Bankhead Cathkin/Springhall Fernhill Spittal/Blairbeth Stonelaw

The ward has politically been split between Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) with each party returning one councillor at each full election. Labour briefly held two of the three seats following a by-election in 2013.

Boundaries

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2007 Scottish local elections. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so Rutherglen South was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards. It contained the majority of the former Stonelaw ward, roughly half of the former Cathkin/Springhall ward and all of the former Fernhill and Spittal/Blairbeth wards as well as a small part of the former Bankhead ward. Rutherglen South covers a suburban area in the south of Rutherglen including the neighbourhoods of Burnside, Blairbeth, Cathkin, Fernhill, High Burnside, Springhall and Spittal. The ward's western boundary is the long-established division with Glasgow City Council.^[2]

Prior to the local government reforms in the 1990s, Rutherglen was within the Glasgow District under Strathclyde Regional Council. One of its single-member wards was Fernhill, which included much of the same area as the current Rutherglen South, with the exception of the parts of Burnside north of the Cathcart Circle Line railway tracks.^[3]

Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections, streets around Overtoun Park, Dryburgh Avenue and Limeside Avenue were transferred from the ward into Rutherglen Central and North while streets to the east of the ward around East Kilbride Road, Brownside Road and Dukes Road were transferred into Rutherglen South from Cambuslang West.^[4]

Councillors

Aerial view of the ward from the west

Election	Councillors
2007		Brian McKenna (Labour)		Eileen Baxendale (Liberal Democrats)		Anne Higgins (SNP)
2012	Robert Brown (Liberal Democrats)
2013 by-election				Gerard Killen (Labour)
2017		Margaret Cowie (Labour)		Carol Nugent (SNP)
2022

Election Results

2022 election

Main article: 2022 South Lanarkshire Council election

Rutherglen South - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	SNP	Carol Nugent (incumbent)	31.9	1,825
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Brown (incumbent)	29.4	1,686
	Labour	Margaret Cowie (incumbent)	23.2	1,331	1,436
	Conservative	Alexandra Herdman	8.5	489	495
	Green	Emma Smith	4.6	263	436
	Scottish Family	Michael O'Hara	1.3	73	85
	Independent	Spencer Hugh Pryor	1.1	62	73
Electorate: 11,697   Valid: 5,729   Spoilt: 73   Quota: 1,433   Turnout: 49.6%

Source:^[5][6]

2017 election

Main article: 2017 South Lanarkshire Council election

Rutherglen South - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SNP	Carol Nugent	31.0	1,803
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Brown (incumbent)	31.0	1,798
	Labour	Margaret Cowie	19.7	1,142	1,220	1,333	1,343	1,522
	Conservative	Taylor Muir	14.7	854	861	950	976	1,009
	Green	Brian Finlay	2.6	152	324	364	383
	UKIP	Jack Sinclair	1.0	57	65	71
Electorate: 11,557   Valid: 5,806   Spoilt: 65   Quota: 1,452   Turnout: 50.8%

Source:^[7][8]

2013 by-election

Rutherglen South by-election (14 February 2013) - 1 seat

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Labour	Gerard Killen	39.9	1,352	1,358	1,370	1,376	1,396	1,616	2,090
	Liberal Democrats	David Baillie	29.5	999	1,004	1,016	1,035	1,104	1,278
	SNP	Margaret Ferrier	21.0	712	714	730	741	755
	Conservative	Aric Gilinisky	3.8	128	133	134	170
	UKIP	Donald Murdo MacKay	3.3	111	115	120
	Green	Susan Martin	1.7	59	60
	Independent	Craig Smith	0.9	31
Electorate: 12,919   Valid: 3,392   Spoilt: 46   Quota: 1,697   Turnout: 26.6%

Source:^[9]

2012 election

Main article: 2012 South Lanarkshire Council election

Rutherglen South - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Labour	Brian McKenna (incumbent)	26.0	1,244
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Brown	24.7	1,181	1,185	1,213
	SNP	Anne Higgins (incumbent)[note 1]	23.9	1,141	1,143	1,151	1,156	1,199
	Labour	Gerard Killen	17.8	851	888	914	918	972
	Conservative	Richard Tawse	4.9	232	233	269	272
	Scottish Unionist	Michael Haigh	2.7	130	131
Electorate: 11,153   Valid: 4,779   Spoilt: 72   Quota: 1,195   Turnout: 42.9%

Source:^[11]

2007 election

Main article: 2007 South Lanarkshire Council election

Rutherglen South - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Labour	Brian McKenna[note 2]	24.7	1,534	1,548	1,565
	Liberal Democrats	Eileen Baxendale	17.3	1,077	1,082	1,092	1,092	???	1,174	1,597
	SNP	Anne Higgins	16.8	1,045	1,070	1,074	1,074	???	1,159	1,195	1,204	1,303	???
	Labour	Patricia Osborne[note 3]	13.6	846	857	864	871	???	951	970	976	1,035
	Conservative	Jean Miller	8.5	529	530	588	588	???	630	649	657
	Liberal Democrats	Danny Campbell	8.1	506	507	510	510	???	550
	Independent	Brian McCutcheon	4.6	285	293	303	303	???
	Green	Michael Tobin	2.4	150	176	178	178
	Scottish Unionist	Michael A Haigh	2.2	135	138
	Scottish Socialist	John Patrick	1.7	106
Electorate: 11,376   Valid: 6,213   Quota: 1,554   Turnout: 55.8%

Source:^[12][13]

Notes

1. Rutherglen South SNP councillor Anne Higgins died on 20 November 2012. A by-election was held on 14 February 2013 and was won by Labour's Gerard Killen which gave the party an overall majority on the council.^[10]
2. Returning councillor for Burgh single-member ward.
3. Returning councillor for Fernhill single-member ward.