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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]

Results

National results

Summary of the 1974 Scottish local regional election results^[2]^[3]^[4]
Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	658,089	38.5	172
	Conservative	488,905	28.6	112
	SNP	215,502	12.6	18
	Liberal	87,333	5.1	11
	Independent/Other	261,372	15.3	114/5
Total

Summary of the 1974 Scottish District local council election results^[2]^[3]
Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	619,531	38.4	428
	Conservative	433,287	26.8	241
	SNP	200,307	12.4	62
	Liberal	80,232	5.0	17
	Independent/Other	280,946	17.5	345/17
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.

Council Results

Regional Councils

Region	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Total Seats		Details
Borders	0	7	0	3	13	0	29	Independent	Details
Central	17	4	9	0	3	1	34	Labour	Details
Dumfries and Galloway	2	0	0	0	33	0	35	Independent	Details
Fife	26	10	0	0	3	3 (1 Communist)	42	Labour	Details
Grampian	13	28	0	2	10	0	53	Conservative	Details
Highland	4	2	1	3	37	0	47	Independent	Details
Lothian	24	19	3	1	1	1	49	No overall control	Details
Orkney								Independent	Details
Shetland								Independent	Details
Strathclyde	71	20	5	2	5	0	103	Labour	Details
Tayside	15	22	0	0	9	0	46	No overall control	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)								Independent	Details

^[3]

District Councils

^[3]

Region	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	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:^[5]

Borders

District	Labour	Conservative	Independent	Other
Berwickshire	0	10	2	0	Conservative
Ettrick and Lauderdale	1	0	14	0	Independent
Roxburgh	0	0	13	Border Independents 3	Independent
Tweeddale	0	0	10	0	Independent

Central

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other
Clackmannan	5	1	5	0	Scottish Labour 1	No overall control
Falkirk	16	2	12	3	Independent Labour 1 Non-Party 2	No overall control
Stirling	7	8	4	1	0	NOC

Dumfries and Galloway

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other
Annandale and Eskdale	0	0	0	14	0	Independent
Nithsdale	6	1	1	17	Non-Party 5	Independent
Stewartry	0	0	0	12	0	Independent
Wigtown	0	0	0	14	0	Independent

Fife

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other
Dunfermline	17	5	3	1	4	0	Labour
Kirkcaldy	24	5	0	0	2	Ratepayers 4 Communist 1	NOC
North-East Fife	0	13	0	0	5	0	Conservative

Grampian

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent
Banff and Buchan	0	0	0	0	18	Independent
City of Aberdeen	28	17	0	3	0	Labour
Gordon	0	3	0	2	7	Independent
Kincardine and Deeside	0	2	0	0	10	Independent
Moray	0	0	1	0	17	Independent

Highland

District	Labour	SNP	Independent
Badenoch and Strathspey	0	0	10	Independent hold
Caithness	0	0	15	Independent hold
Inverness	0	0	15	Independent hold
Lochaber 2 vacancies	3	0	7	Independent
Nairn	0	3	7	Independent
Ross and Cromarty	0	0	20	Independent hold
Skye and Lochalsh	0	0	10	Independent
Sutherland	0	0	14	Independent

Lothian

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent
City of Edinburgh	27	31	2	3	1	No overall control
East Lothian	10	6	0	0	1	Labour
Midlothian	11	2	1	0	1	Labour
West Lothian	10	0	8	0	3	NOC

Strathclyde

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Others
Argyll and Bute 1 vacancy	0	0	0	0	25	0	Independent
Bearsden and Milngavie	1	5	0	0	4	0	No overall control
Clydebank	5	1	3	0	0	Scottish Labour 1	Labour
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	3	0	7	0	0	0	SNP
Cumnock and Doon Valley	8	1	0	0	1		Labour
Cunninghame	14	0	1	0	2	Moderate Conservatives 7	Labour
Dumbarton	8	2	0	0	5	0	Labour
East Kilbride	5	2	7	0	1	0	No overall control
Eastwood	0	10	0	0	0	Ratepayers 2	Conservative
City of Glasgow	54	16	1	0	0	Independent Conservative 1	Labour
Hamilton	13	2	2	2	1	Independent Labour 0	Labour
Inverclyde	14	2	0	6	1	0	Labour
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	12	4	0	0	0	0	Labour
Kyle and Carrick	10	15	0	0	0	0	Conservative
Lanark	4	0	2	0	8	0	Independent
Motherwell	25	1	2	1	1	Communist 0	Labour
Monklands	15	4	1	0	1	0	Labour
Renfrew	25	10	1	0	3	CA 1	Labour
Strathkelvin	6	5	3	0	0	0	No overall control

Tayside

District	Labour	Conservative	Independent	Others
Angus	3	11	8	0	Conservative
City of Dundee	22	20	2	Real Labour 1 Monifeith Ratepayers 0	NOC
Perth and Kinross	4	19	6	0	Conservative

References

^ Faux, Ronald (5 May 1977). "SNP seizes 107 seats". The Times. pp. 1, 4.
^ ^a ^b Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "appendices" (PDF). www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk. 1976. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
^ "Scottish Elections". Scottish Elections. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
^ "Results of Scottish district council elections". The Times. 5 May 1977. p. 4.

[1] Faux, Ronald (5 May 1977). "SNP seizes 107 seats". The Times. pp. 1, 4.

[Rallings-2] Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.

[Council-3] "appendices" (PDF). www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk. 1976. Retrieved 2 June 2021.

[4] "Scottish Elections". Scottish Elections. Retrieved 2 June 2021.

[5] "Results of Scottish district council elections". The Times. 5 May 1977. p. 4.

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(1973 ←) 1974 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1975)
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See also: UK General election (Feb) UK General election (Oct)