North Lanarkshire Council

North Lanarkshire Council is one of the 32 local authorities of Scotland, covering the North Lanarkshire council area. The council is the second largest Scottish council by number of councillors, having 77 members.

North Lanarkshire Council
Coat of arms
Council logo
Leadership
Provost	Kenneth Duffy, Labour since 25 August 2022[1]
Leader	Jim Logue, Labour since 11 August 2022[2]
Chief Executive	Des Murray since 2018[3]
Structure
Seats	77 councillors
Political groups	Administration (34)   Labour (34) Other parties (43)   SNP (24)   Progressive Change (7)   Independent (5)   Conservative (5)   BUP (1)   Green (1)
Elections
Voting system	Single transferable vote
Last election	5 May 2022
Next election	6 May 2027
Meeting place
Civic Centre, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell, ML1 1AB
Website
www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk

Political control

The council has been under no overall control since 2017. Since August 2022 the council has been led by a Labour minority administration.^[4]

The first election to North Lanarkshire Council was held in 1995, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new system came into force on 1 April 1996. Political control of the council since 1996 has been as follows:^[5]

Party in control		Years
	Labour	1996–2017
	No overall control	2017–present

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1996 have been:^[6]

Councillor	Party		From	To
Harry McGuigan		Labour	1 Apr 1996	17 Sep 1998
Jim McCabe[7]		Labour	17 Sep 1998	29 Feb 2016
Jim Logue		Labour	8 Mar 2016	May 2022
Jordan Linden[8]		SNP	19 May 2022	27 Jul 2022
Jim Logue		Labour	11 Aug 2022

Composition

Following the 2022 election and subsequent changes of allegiance and by-elections up to July 2024, the composition of the council was:

Party		Councillors
	Labour	34
	SNP	24
	PCNL	7
	Independent	5
	Conservative	5
	British Unionist Party	1
	Scottish Green	1
Total		77

Progressive Change North Lanarkshire was registered as a political party in July 2024.^[9] It had previously been a group of independents, all of whom had been elected as SNP councillors.^[10][11] The next election is due in 2027.^[12]

Premises

The council is based at Motherwell Civic Centre on Windmillhill Street in Motherwell. The building was built between 1965 and 1970 for the former Motherwell and Wishaw Town Council, and was subsequently used as the headquarters of Motherwell District Council between 1975 and 1996.^[13]

Elections

Main article: North Lanarkshire Council elections

Since 2007 elections have been held every five years under the single transferable vote system, introduced by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004. Election results since 1995 have been as follows:^[5]

Year	Seats	SNP	Labour	Conservative	BUP	Green	Liberal Democrats	Independent / Other	Notes
1995	69	7	59	0	0	0	0	3	Labour majority
1999	70	12	56	0	0	0	0	2	New ward boundaries.[14] Labour majority
2003	70	13	54	0	0	0	0	3	Labour majority
2007	70	23	40	1	0	0	1	5	New ward boundaries.[15]
2012	70	26	41	0	0	0	0	3	Labour majority
2017	77	33	32	10	0	0	0	2	New ward boundaries.[16] Labour minority
2022	77	36	32	5	1	1	0	2	SNP minority until August 2022, then Labour minority.

Wards

Map of North Lanarkshire's 21 wards, using 2017 boundaries

The council is made up of 21 wards,^[17][18] as follows:

Ward Number	Ward Name	Location	Population (2017)
1	Kilsyth		11,832
2	Cumbernauld North		19,670
3	Cumbernauld South		16,206
4	Cumbernauld East		16,608
5	Stepps, Chryston and Muirhead		11,623
6	Gartcosh, Glenboig and Moodiesburn		13,438
7	Coatbridge North		15,320
8	Airdrie North		20,062
9	Airdrie Central		16,570
10	Coatbridge West		14,213
11	Coatbridge South		17,286
12	Airdrie South		19,803
13	Fortissat		15,706
14	Thorniewood		13,916
15	Bellshill		15,252
16	Mossend and Holytown		12,799
17	Motherwell West		14,129
18	Motherwell North		18,667
19	Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig		20,146
20	Murdostoun		18,489
21	Wishaw		18,225
Total			339,960