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Na h-Eileanan Siar
Western Isles Council Flag
Flag
Official logo of Na h-Eileanan Siar
Logo
Na h-Eileanan Siar in Scotland
Admin HQ Stornoway
(Steòrnabhagh)
Government
 • Body Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
 • Control Independent
 • MPs *Angus MacNeil
 • MSPs *Alasdair Allan
ONS code S12000013
ISO 3166 code GB-ELS
Website cne-siar.gov.uk

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈkʰõ.ərˠʎə nə ˈɲelan ˈʃiəɾ], Template:Lang-for) is the local government council for Na h-Eileanan Siar (the Outer Hebrides) council area of Scotland.[1][2] It is based in Stornoway in the Isle of Lewis.

Name[]

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar is the only local council in Scotland to have a Gaelic-only name. The original name, Western Isles Council, was retracted in 1997 under the Local Government (Gaelic Names) (Scotland) Act 1997, and the former "Western Isles" council area is now officially named "Na h-Eileanan Siar", even in English language contexts.[1][2][3]

History[]

In 1975, the council was created as Western Isles Council, 57 years after the creation of Na h-Eileanan an Iar for elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the constituency being named, when created, Western Isles). Since 1999, there has been also the Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency of the Scottish Parliament, with the same boundaries.[4]

When the Bank of Credit and Commerce International collapsed in 1991, the then Western Isles Council lost £35m invested there, compelling a large increase in its council tax rate.[5]

In 1997, the Western Isles Council was renamed as Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.[1][3][4]

Elections[]

General elections to the council are held on a five-year cycle. The next is due in 2022.

From 1975 until 2007, council elections used the first past the post system of election; the last elections of this type elected 31 councillors, elected by 31 single-member wards.[6]

In 2007, under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, the single transferable vote system, together with multi-member wards, was used for the first time, each ward electing three or four councillors. This system is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.[6]

Political representation[]

The 2017 election resulted in the following composition: [7][8][9]

Party 2017 Election As of June 2021
style="background-color:Template:Independent politician/meta/color;" width=10px | "| Independent 23 22
style="background-color:#FFFF00;" width=10px | "| Scottish National Party 7 6
style="background-color:Template:Scottish Conservatives/meta/color;" width=10px | "| Conservative 1 1
style="background-color:Template:Alba Party/meta/color;" width=10px | "| Alba 0 1
style="background-color:Template:Scottish Greens/meta/color;" width=10px | "| Scottish Greens 0 1

See also[]

  • Constitutional status of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles
  • Lerwick Declaration

References[]

External links[]

Template:Na h-Eileanan Siar elections

Template:Wards of Na h-Eileanan Siar Template:Former local government regions of Scotland

  • Flag of ScotlandScotland portal
This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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