2012 Stirling Council election

The 2012 Stirling Council election was held on 3 May 2012, the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election used the seven wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 22 councillors being elected. Each ward will elect either three or four members, using the STV electoral system.

2012 Stirling Council election

← 2007 3 May 2012 (2012-05-03) 2017 →
All 22 seats to Stirling Council 12 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Graham Houston Corrie McChord Party SNP Labour Leader's seat Dunblane and Bridge of Allan Stirling East Last election 7 seats, 29.2% 8 seats, 28.2% Seats before 7 8 Seats won 9 8 Seat change 2 Popular vote 10,626 8,180 Percentage 37.2% 28.6% Swing 8.0% 0.4%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Alistair Berrill Mark Ruskell Party Conservative Scottish Green Leader's seat Forth and Endrick Dunblane and Bridge of Allan Last election 4 seats, 25.3% 0 seats, 1.7% Seats before 4 0 Seats won 4 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 5,689 1,658 Percentage 19.9% 5.8% Swing 5.4% 4.1%
Council Leader before election Graham Houston SNP Council Leader after election Corrie McChord Labour

The election saw the Scottish National Party increase their representation by 2 seats and significantly increase their vote share to become the largest party on the council. Labour and the Conservatives retained their 8 and 4 seats respectively while the Greens gained a seat on the authority. By contrast the Liberal Democrats lost all of their seats.

Following the election a coalition was formed between the Labour Party and the Conservatives which replaced the previous SNP minority administration.

Results

2012 Stirling Council election result

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SNP	9	2	0	2	40.9	37.2	10,626	8.0
	Labour	8	2	2		36.4	28.6	8,180	0.4
	Conservative	4	0	0		18.2	19.9	5,689	5.4
	Scottish Green	1	1	0	1	4.6	5.8	1,658	4.1
	Liberal Democrats	0	0	3	3	0.0	5.5	1,562	6.0
	UKIP	0	0	0		0.0	0.9	261	0.8
	Independent	0	0	0		0.0	1.6	449	2.1

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

Trossachs and Teith

• 2007: 1xSNP; 1xCon; 1xLab
• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xCon
• 2007-2012 Change: SNP gain from Lab

Trossachs and Teith – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Conservative	Martin Earl	30.29%	1,285
	SNP	Alycia Hayes	23.76%	1,008	1,027.2	1,054.1	1,109.6
	SNP	Fergus Wood (incumbent)	21.28%	903	925.7	947.3	984.3	1,023.6	1,283.2
	Labour	Gerry McGarvey	15.84%	672	690.3	732.5	804.1	808.1
	Independent	Jack Black	5.23%	222	260.2	307.7
	Liberal Democrats	Galen Milne	3.61%	153	199.9
Electorate: 8,464   Valid: 4,243   Spoilt: 72   Quota: 1,061   Turnout: 4,315 (50.13%)

Forth and Endrick

• 2007: 1xLab; 1xSNP; 1xCon
• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xCon
• 2007-2012 Change: SNP gain one seat from Lab

Forth and Endrick – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Conservative	Alistair Berrill (incumbent)	23.58%	1,097	1,128	1,198
	SNP	Graham Lambie (incumbent)	19.60%	912	927	944	945.2	1,016.3	1,041.4	1,171.4
	SNP	Ian Muirhead	18.49%	860	894	928	929.3	991.4	1,020.4	1,201.7
	Labour	Alistair William Weir	16.14%	751	788	824	824.9	917.0	982.4
	Conservative	Philip Graves	6.64%	309	328	356	383.2	408.7
	UKIP	Paul Henke	5.61%	261	271
	Scottish Green	Gordon Kerr Cowtan	5.55%	258	298	335	336.2
	Liberal Democrats	Alison McGilvray	4.39%	204
Electorate: 8,464   Valid: 4,652   Spoilt: 56   Quota: 1,164   Turnout: 4,708 (48.79%)

Dunblane and Bridge of Allan

• 2007: 1xSNP; 1xCon; 1xLab; 1xLib Dem
• 2012: 1xSNP; 1xCon; 1xLab; 1xGRN
• 2007-2012 Change: GRN gain one seat from Lib Dem

Dunblane and Bridge of Allan – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SNP	Graham Houston (incumbent)	27.31%	1,494
	Conservative	Callum Campbell (incumbent)	23.07%	1,262
	Labour	Mike Robbins	21.29%	1,165
	Scottish Green	Mark Ruskell	16.63%	910	951.1	981	1,006.1	1,251
	Liberal Democrats	Gary Airnes	6.32%	346	368.4	427.1	442.4
	SNP	Ian Smith	5.37%	294	604.1	615.8	624.4	683.9
Electorate: 12,193   Valid: 5,471   Spoilt: 76   Quota: 1,095   Turnout: 5,547 (44.87%)

Castle

• 2007: 1xSNP; 1xLab; 1xLib Dem
• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2007-2012 Change: Lab gain one seat from Lib Dem

Castle – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SNP	Jim Thomson (incumbent)	27.54%	828
	Labour	John Hendry (incumbent)	18.89%	568	570.1	581.2	606.5	643.2	673.3	759.8
	Labour	Johanna Boyd	17.59%	529	530.6	544.7	556.5	588.3	631.3	748.1
	Scottish Green	Zara Kitson	10.87%	327	331	366.5	409.9	497.3	575.7
	Conservative	Jennifer Gordon	8.71%	262	262.6	287.9	294.1	326.4
	Independent	Steve Sankey	7.55%	227	228.8	250.2	288.1
	SNP	David Wilson	4.72%	142	201.7	207.9
	Liberal Democrats	Graham Reed (incumbent)	4.12%	124	126.8
Electorate: 7,843   Valid: 3,007   Spoilt: 67   Quota: 752   Turnout: 3,074 (38.34%)

Stirling West

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

Stirling West – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	SNP	Scott Farmer	36.61%	1,484
	Labour	Christine Simpson	31.01	1,257
	Conservative	Neil Benny	25.04	1,015
	Liberal Democrats	Gordon Bruce	7.35	298
Electorate: 8,611   Valid: 4,054   Spoilt: 44   Quota: 1,014   Turnout: 4,098 (47.08%)

Stirling East

• 2007: 1xSNP; 1xLab; 1xLib Dem
• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2007-2012: Change: Lab gain one seat from Lib Dem

Stirling East – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SNP	Steven Paterson (incumbent)†	33.06	1,278
	Labour	Corrie McChord (incumbent)	22.30	862	925.8	961.6	992.2
	Labour	Danny Gibson	22.19	858	892.6	929.1	957.6	978.3
	Liberal Democrats	Ian Alexander Brown (incumbent)	10.42	403	436.3	507.9	642	642.9
	Conservative	Benjamin Kerr	7.81	302	320.5	333.2
	Scottish Green	Johannes Butscher	4.22	163	224.6
Electorate: 8,611   Valid: 3,866   Spoilt: 77   Quota: 967   Turnout: 3,943 (41.09%)

Bannockburn

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

Bannockburn – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SNP	Alasdair MacPherson (incumbent)	37.49%	1,236
	Labour	Margaret Brisley (incumbent)	34.36%	1,133
	Labour	Violet Weir (incumbent)	11.68%	385	409.9	664.7	671.4	704.6	766.1	910.1
	SNP	Gerry McLaughlan	5.67%	187	516.2	527.3	531.6	549.9	596.6
	Independent	Bill McDonald	5.0%	165	181.3	190.8	203.6	259.6
	Conservative	Lesley Stein	4.76%	157	160.7	162.3	170.3
	Liberal Democrats	David Kaufman	1.0%	34	38.2	44.3
Electorate: 8,611   Valid: 3,297   Spoilt: 118   Quota: 825   Turnout: 3,415 (40.8%)

Aftermath

Stirling East by-election

On 7 May 2015, Stirling East SNP councillor Steven Paterson was elected as the MP for Stirling. He resigned his Council seat on 30 June 2015.^[1] A by-election was held on 1 October 2015 to fill the vacancy and the seat was held by the SNP's Gerry McLaughlan.

Stirling East By-election (1 October 2015) – 1 Seat^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	SNP	Gerry McLaughlan	45.2%	1,311	1,367	1,388
	Labour	Chris Kane	37.7%	1,094	1,134	1,272
	Conservative	Luke Davison	11.8%	343	352
	Scottish Green	Alasdair Tollemache	5.2%	152
Electorate: 10,460   Valid: 2,900   Spoilt: 28   Quota: 1,451   Turnout: 2,928