# Tayside

Tayside (Scottish Gaelic: Taobh Tatha) was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 16 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named after the River Tay.

## History

Tayside region was created in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which established a two-tier structure of local government across mainland Scotland comprising upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts, following recommendations made by the 1969 Wheatley Report. Tayside region covered the whole area of the counties of Angus, Dundee (which was a county of a city), Kinross-shire and most of Perthshire. Tayside region was divided into three districts: Angus, Dundee, and Perth and Kinross.
Tayside region was abolished in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, which replaced regions and districts with unitary council areas. Each of Tayside's three districts became a separate council area, with some adjustments to boundaries around Dundee.
Tayside Regional Council directly operated local bus services in the City of Dundee from 1975 until 1986, when bus deregulation under terms of the Transport Act 1985 was implemented. The restructured Tayside Buses became employee-owned in 1991, was sold to National Express in 1997 and McGill's Bus Services in 2020, and today trades as Xplore Dundee.
Tayside continues to have a joint electoral, valuation, and health board. It retained its police and fire services until they were merged, on 1 April 2013, into bodies known as Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, which cover the whole of Scotland. Provision of healthcare across the region also continues via NHS Tayside.
Angus Council, Dundee City Council and Perth and Kinross Council formed Tayside Contracts as their commercial arm and to provide shared services, such as road and housing maintenance, winter maintenance (snow clearing and gritting), catering and cleaning services across the former Tayside area. Tayside Contracts services are open to the public and all profits from the company are equally fed back into each of the three councils to bolster revenue to the local authorities to provide cash for services as a boost to central government and council tax income.

## Political control

The first election to the regional council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 16 May 1975. Political control of the council from 1975 was as follows:
| Party in control | Years |
| No overall control | 1975–1978 |
| Conservative | 1978–1986 |
| No overall control | 1986–1996 |

### Leadership

The leaders of the council were:
| Councillor | Party | From | To |
| Ian Mackie | Conservative | 16 May 1975 | 8 May 1986 |
| Ron Tosh | Labour | 16 May 1986 | 23 Jun 1987 |
| Chris Ward | Labour | 23 Jun 1987 | 14 Dec 1989 |
| Bill Derby | Labour | 14 Dec 1989 | 13 May 1994 |
| Lena Graham | SNP | 13 May 1994 | 25 Jul 1994 |
| Ewan Dow | SNP | 25 Jul 1994 | 31 Mar 1996 |

### Elections

Election results were as follows:
| Year | Seats | SNP | Labour | Conservative | Liberal Democrats | Independent / Other |
| 1974 | 46 | 0 | 15 | 22 | 0 | 9 |
| 1978 | 46 | 0 | 15 | 25 | 0 | 6 |
| 1982 | 46 | 5 | 12 | 27 | 0 | 2 |
| 1986 | 46 | 9 | 20 | 14 | 1 | 2 |
| 1990 | 46 | 10 | 18 | 14 | 2 | 2 |
| 1994 | 46 | 22 | 16 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
* ↑ Includes Liberal and Social Democratic Party prior to 1988, with the two parties having formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance between 1981 and 1988.

## Premises

The regional council established its headquarters at Tayside House at 28 Crichton Street in Dundee. It was already under construction when the council was created, and the council started moving into the building in May 1976. After the regional council's abolition, ownership of the building passed to the three successor councils. Dundee City Council bought out the other two councils' interests in the building in 1997 and used it as its own offices until 2011, after which the building was demolished.