| Election Name: | 1974 Scottish local elections |
| Country: | Scotland |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1973 Scottish local elections |
| Previous Year: | 1973 |
| Next Election: | 1977 Scottish local elections |
| Next Year: | 1977 |
| Election Date: | 7 May 1974 |
| Party1: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Party2: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Party5: | Liberal Party (UK) |
| Party4: | Scottish National Party |
| Map Size: | 350px |
Elections for the Scottish district councils were held on Tuesday 7 May 1974, for both the new regional and district councils, between the two United Kingdom general elections of February and October in that same year.
These were the first elections held to the 53 district councils established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The Labour Party did reasonably well and the Scottish National Party (SNP) did not. The councillors acted as "shadow" councils until May 1975, when the provisions of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 came into effect.[1]
|-!colspan=2|Parties!Votes!Votes %!Wards|-| |658,089|38.5|172|-| |488,905|28.6|112|-| |215,502|12.6|18|-| |87,333|5.1|11|-| style="width: 10px" bgcolor=|| style="text-align: left;" scope="row" | Independent/Other|261,372|15.3|114/5|-!colspan=2|Total!! !! !!|}
|-!colspan=2|Parties!Votes!Votes %!Wards|-| |619,531|38.4|428|-| |433,287|26.8|241|-| |200,307|12.4|62|-| |80,232|5.0|17|-| style="width: 10px" bgcolor=|| style="text-align: left;" scope="row" | Independent/Other|280,946|17.5|345/17|-!colspan=2|Total!! !! !!|}
Note: Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles were governed at the district level as unitary authorities, meaning they were not included in any larger region.
| Region | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Other | Turnout | Total Seats | Control | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borders | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 29 | Details | |||
| Central | 17 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 34 | Details | |||
| Dumfries and Galloway | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 35 | Details | |||
| Fife | 26 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 (1 Communist) | 42 | Details | |||
| Grampian | 13 | 28 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 53 | Details | |||
| Highland | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 37 | 0 | 47 | Details | |||
| Lothian | 24 | 19 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 49 | Details | |||
| Orkney | Details | ||||||||||
| Shetland | Details | ||||||||||
| Strathclyde | 71 | 20 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 103 | Details | |||
| Tayside | 15 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 46 | Details | |||
| Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) | Details |
| Region | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Other | Turnout | Total Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borders | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 54 | ||
| Central | 29 | 9 | 21 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 67 | ||
| Dumfries and Galloway | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 61 | 2 | 70 | ||
| Fife | 43 | 24 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 84 | ||
| Grampian | 30 | 25 | 1 | 4 | 48 | 0 | 108 | ||
| Highland | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 99 | 0 | 109 | ||
| Lothian | 62 | 38 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 127 | ||
| Orkney | |||||||||
| Shetland | |||||||||
| Strathclyde | 225 | 92 | 25 | 7 | 49 | 8 | 406 | ||
| Tayside | 29 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 94 | ||
| Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) |
The seats on each district council after the election were as follows:[2]
| District | Labour | Conservative | Liberal | Independent | Other | Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berwickshire | 0 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Ettrick and Lauderdale | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | ||
| Roxburgh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Border Independents 3 | ||
| Tweeddale | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Other | Control | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clackmannan | 5 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Scottish Labour 1 | ||||
| Falkirk | 16 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 3 | Independent Labour 1 Non-Party 2 | ||||
| Stirling | 7 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | bgcolor=white | NOC |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Independent | Other | Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annandale and Eskdale | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | ||
| Nithsdale | 6 | 1 | 1 | 17 | Non-Party 5 | ||
| Stewartry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | ||
| Wigtown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Other | Control | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunfermline | 17 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Kirkcaldy | 24 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Ratepayers 4 Communist 1 | bgcolor=black | NOC | |
| North-East Fife | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banff and Buchan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | ||
| City of Aberdeen | 28 | 17 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||
| Gordon | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | ||
| Kincardine and Deeside | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||
| Moray | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17 |
| District | Labour | SNP | Independent | Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Badenoch and Strathspey | 0 | 0 | 10 | hold | |
| Caithness | 0 | 0 | 15 | hold | |
| Inverness | 0 | 0 | 15 | hold | |
| Lochaber 2 vacancies | 3 | 0 | 7 | ||
| Nairn | 0 | 3 | 7 | ||
| Ross and Cromarty | 0 | 0 | 20 | hold | |
| Skye and Lochalsh | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||
| Sutherland | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Control | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Edinburgh | 27 | 31 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| East Lothian | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| Midlothian | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| West Lothian | 10 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 3 | bgcolor=black | NOC |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Liberal | Independent | Others | Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argyll and Bute 1 vacancy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | ||
| Bearsden and Milngavie | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||
| Clydebank | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Scottish Labour 1 | ||
| Cumbernauld and Kilsyth | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Cumnock and Doon Valley | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Cunninghame | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Moderate Conservatives 7 | ||
| Dumbarton | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||
| East Kilbride | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Eastwood | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ratepayers 2 | ||
| City of Glasgow | 54 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Independent Conservative 1 | ||
| Hamilton | 13 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Independent Labour 0 | ||
| Inverclyde | 14 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Kilmarnock and Loudoun | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Kyle and Carrick | 10 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Lanark | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| Motherwell | 25 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Communist 0 | ||
| Monklands | 15 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Renfrew | 25 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 3 | CA 1 | ||
| Strathkelvin | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| District | Labour | Conservative | SNP | Independent | Others | Control | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angus | 3 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 0 | |||
| City of Dundee | 22 | 20 | 0 | 2 | Real Labour 1 Monifeith Ratepayers 0 | bgcolor=black | NOC | |
| Perth and Kinross | 4 | 19 | 0 | 6 | 0 |