City of Glasgow

The City of Glasgow Council (Mòr-bhaile Ghlaschu in Gaelic) is one of the 32 Scottish unitary authorities, formerly Glasgow District Council and Glasgow Corporation in Glasgow, Scotland.

Local government

History

Glasgow Corporation

Originally called the Glasgow Corporation or City Corporation until 1975, it was governed by councilors, and led by the Lord Provost. Glasgow Corporation Transport, a public body, ran the local buses and traditional Glasgow Trams, until the creation of the District Council.

Glasgow District Council

Between 1975 and 1996, following the creation of a two-tier local government structure of regions and districts, the local services were split between two councils. Glasgow District council maintained refuse collection, museums, libraries and housing , while Strathclyde Regional Council took control of the police, fire service, water, education, social work and transport.

Unitary Authority

The current City of Glasgow Council is one of the 32 Scottish unitary authorities and came into being in 1996. It has roughly the same area as the old Glasgow District Council and assumed the powers of that body, as well as taking on those of the old Strathclyde Regional Council for the Glasgow area.

The new district is actually slightly smaller than the old one, having lost Rutherglen, Fernhill, Cambuslang, Halfway, King's Park, and Toryglen, which now form part of South Lanarkshire. ^*

Powers and Structure

The Council is comprised of 79 elected councillors who each represent a ward. They are elected with the single-plurality electoral system (more commonly referred to as 'first past the post'). This electoral system has led to a disproportionate representation on the council, with 69 of the 79 councillors representing the Labour Party although they gained only around half the votes cast. The Scottish National Party gained the second largest number of votes cast (some 20% or so) and is represented by four councillors.

The Council has responsibility for a number of functions, including parks, refuse collection, local education, museums and libraries.

It is lead by the Leader of the Council and elects a civic leader, called the Lord Provost (equivalent to theLord Mayor). The current Lord Provost of Glasgow is Liz Cameron, who replaced Alex Mosson in May, 2003.

Boundaries

It borders onto Renfrewshire,West Kanadeshire,West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire.

Wards

Since the last reorganisation, the current wards are:-

Scottish Parliament electoral region and constituencies

Main article: Glasgow (Scottish Parliament electoral region).

The Glasgow electoral region of the Scottish Parliament covers the City of Glasgow, the Rutherglen area of South Lanarkshire and a small eastern area of Renfrewshire. It elects ten of the parliament's 73 first past the post constituency members and seven of the 56 additional members. Both kinds of member are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). The system of election is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.

Until the United Kingdom general election, 2005, the first past the post seats were the same for the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) as for the United Kingdom Parliament (Westminster) (apart from Orkney and Shetland, which formed separate constituencies at Holyrood, but not Westminster). In 2005 the number of Westminster Members of Parliament (MPs) was cut to 59, with new constituencies being formed, while the existing number of MSPs was retained at Holyrood.

First past the post constituencies

The ten Scottish Parliament constituencies in the Glasgow electoral region are:-

Additional members

The current additional member MSPs are:

Sandra White (Scottish National Party)
Nicola Sturgeon (Scottish National Party)
Tommy Sheridan (Scottish Socialist Party)
Rosie Kane (Scottish Socialist Party)
Robert Brown (Liberal Democrat)
Bill Aitken (Conservative)
Patrick Harvie (Scottish Green Party)

United Kingdom Parliament constituencies

See also United Kingdom constituencies.

Following reform of constituencies of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Parliament (Westminster) in 2005, which reduced the number of Scottish Members of Parliament (MPs), the current Westminster constituencies in Glasgow are:-

#	Constituency	MP	Party

1	Glasgow, Central	Mohammad Sarwar	Labour
2	Glasgow, East	David Marshall	Labour
3	Glasgow, North	Ann McKechin	Labour
4	Glasgow, North East	Michael Martin	Speaker
5	Glasgow, North West	John Robertson	Labour
6	Glasgow, South	Tom Harris	Labour
7	Glasgow, South West	Ian Davidson	Lab Coop

Districts of Scotland | Glasgow | Unitary authorities of Scotland

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