Hamilton South (ward)

Hamilton South is one of the 20 electoral wards of South Lanarkshire Council. Created in 2007, the ward elects four councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system and covers an area with a population of 22,032 people.

Hamilton South
South Lanarkshire
Boundary of Hamilton South in South Lanarkshire from 2007–2017.
Population	22,032 (2020)[1]
Electorate	16,516 (2022)
Major settlements	Hamilton (part of)
Scottish Parliament constituency	Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse
Scottish Parliament region	Central Scotland
UK Parliament constituency	Hamilton and Clyde Valley
Current ward
Created	2007 (2007)
Number of councillors	4
Councillor	John Ross (SNP)
Councillor	Gavin Wylie Keatt (Labour)
Councillor	Celine Handibode (Labour)
Councillor	Helen Toner (SNP)
Created from	Cadzow Hamilton Centre/Ferniegair Hamilton Centre North Low Waters Silvertonhill Woodhead/Meikle Earnock

The ward has produced strong results for both the Scottish National Party (SNP) – who won half the seats at the 2012, 2017 and 2022 elections – and Labour who won half the seats at the 2007, 2012 and 2022 elections. Following a by-election win in 2013, Labour held three of the four seats.

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 Hamilton South was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards. It contained all of the former Low Waters and Silvertonhill wards as well as part of the former Cadzow and Woodhead/Meikle Earnock wards and a small part of the former Hamilton Centre/Ferniegair and Hamilton Centre North wards. Hamilton South covers the southern part of Hamilton including the Avon Grove, Cadzow, Eddlewood, Fairhill, Laighstonehall, Low Waters, Meikle Earnock, Silvertonhill, Torhead Farm and Woodhead neighbourhoods.^[2] Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections, streets around Portland Place, Burnblea Street and Kemp Street were added to the ward from Hamilton North and East which resulted in the ward's northeastern boundary moving to the Argyle Line railway tracks.^[3]

Councillors

Year	Councillors
2007		Joe Lowe (Labour/Independent)		Brian McCaig (Labour)		Bobby Lawson (SNP)		John Murray (Conservative)
2012			Angela Crawley (SNP)
2013 by-election					Stuart Gallacher (Labour)
2015 by-election	John Ross (SNP)
2017				Lynne Mailon (Conservative)		Josh Wilson (SNP)
2017
2022			Gavin Wylie Keatt (Labour)		Celine Handibode (Labour)	Helen Toner (SNP)

Election results

2022 election

Main article: 2022 South Lanarkshire Council election

Hamilton South - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	SNP	John Ross (incumbent)	26.3	1,921
	Labour	Gavin Wylie Keatt	23.1	1,688
	Labour	Celine Handibode	22.3	1,632
	SNP	Helen Toner	15.1	1,105	1,525
	Conservative	Lynne Nailon (incumbent)	13.1	960	967
Electorate: 16,516   Valid: 7,306   Spoilt: 193   Quota: 1,462   Turnout: 45.4%

Source:^[4][5]

2017 election

Main article: 2017 South Lanarkshire Council election

Hamilton South - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SNP	John Ross (incumbent)	30.6	2,167
	Labour	Joe Lowe (incumbent)[note 1]	25.7	1,818
	Conservative	Lynne Nailon	21.8	1,544
	Labour	Brian McCaig (incumbent)	9.1	643	669	991	1,020	1,055	1,177
	SNP	Josh Wilson	6.7	475	1,105	1,112	1,115	1,209	1,245	1,485
	Scottish Green	John Kane	3.0	216	249	257	265
	Liberal Democrats	Joanne Ferguson	3.0	210	228	244	282	345
Electorate: 16,328   Valid: 7,073   Spoilt: 177   Quota: 1,415   Turnout: 44.4%

Source:^[7][8]

2015 by-election

Hamilton South by-election (6 August 2015)- 1 seat

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	SNP	John Ross	48.0	1,881	1,883	1,888	1,905	1919	1,988
	Labour	Jim Lee	35.6	1,396	1,398	1,405	1,410	1,425	1,460
	Conservative	Lynne Nailon	8.9	349	349	354	365	389	394
	Scottish Green	John Kane	3.2	127	128	132	135	146
	Scottish Christian	Craig Smith	2.0	77	80	81	84
	UKIP	Donald Murdo MacKay	1.1	43	44	45
	Liberal Democrats	Matthew Cockburn	0.8	32	34
	Pirate	Andrew McCallum	0.3	13
Electorate: 14,811   Valid: 3,918   Spoilt: 52   Quota: 1,960   Turnout: 26.8%

Source:^[9]

2013 by-election

Hamilton South by-election (24 October 2013) - 1 seat

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Labour	Stuart Gallacher	51.7	1,781
	SNP	Josh Wilson	32.5	1,120
	Conservative	Lynne Nailon	9.4	322
	Scottish Christian	Craig Martin	3.9	133
	UKIP	Josh Richardson	2.5	86
Electorate: 14,478   Valid: 3,442   Spoilt: 43   Quota: 1,722   Turnout: 24.1%

Source:^[10]

2012 election

Main article: 2012 South Lanarkshire Council election

Hamilton South - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Labour	Joe Lowe (incumbent)	36.6	1,975
	SNP	Angela Crawley[note 2]	23.2	1,255
	Labour	Brian McCaig (incumbent)	14.8	800	1,512
	SNP	Bobby Lawson (incumbent)[note 3]	9.3	502	537	599	747	773	861	988
	Conservative	John Murray (incumbent)	9.2	496	516	542	545	584	654
	Scottish Senior Citizens	David Holland	3.7	199	234	314	324	380
	Scottish Christian	Craig Smith	3.1	165	176	198	200
Electorate: 14,383   Valid: 5,392   Spoilt: 134   Quota: 1,079   Turnout: 37.5%

Source:^[13]

2007 election

Main article: 2007 South Lanarkshire Council election

Hamilton South - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Labour	Joe Lowe[note 4]	34.9	2,626
	SNP	Bobby Lawson	23.8	1,791
	Labour	Brian McCaig[note 5]	13.4	1,005	1,685
	Conservative	John Murray	10.7	808	837	872	883	906	942	1,121	???
	Independent	John Carracher	6.2	464	531	564	584	611	740	876
	Liberal Democrats	John Oswald	5.7	427	459	509	532	633	664
	Independent	David Holland	2.9	215	255	276	283	300
	Scottish Green	Denize McBride	2.5	188	219	265	276
Electorate: 15,037   Valid: 7,524   Quota: 1,505   Turnout: 51.0%

Source:^[14][15]

Notes

1. Hamilton South Labour councillor and Joe Lowe resigned from the party and became an independent in May 2017.^[6]
2. Hamilton South SNP councillor Angela Crawley was elected as MP for Lanark and Hamilton East on 7 May 2015. She resigned her council seat on 22 May 2015.^[11] A by-election was held on 6 August 2015 and was won by the SNP's John Ross.
3. Hamilton South SNP councillor Bobby Lawson died on 13 August 2013. A by-election was held on 24 October 2013 and was won by Labour's Stuart Gallacher.^[12]
4. Returning councillor for Low Waters single-member ward.
5. Returning councillor for Silvertonhill single-member ward.