East Dunbartonshire
East Dunbartonshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north of Glasgow and contains many of the affluent areas to the north of the city, including Bearsden, Milngavie, Balmore and Torrance, as well as many of the city's commuter towns and villages. East Dunbartonshire also shares borders with North Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire. The council area covers parts of the historic counties of Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire. The council area was formed in 1996, as a result of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, from the former Bearsden and Milngavie  district and most of the former Strathkelvin district (all areas except Chryston and Auchinloch, which became part of North Lanarkshire council area), within the wider Strathclyde region. Demographics. East Dunbartonshire council area has low levels of deprivation, with relatively low unemployment and low levels of crime. The population is both declining and ageing. In a 2007 Reader's Digest poll, East Dunbartonshire was voted the best place in Britain to raise a family. The area continually tops the Halifax Bank Quality of Life list. In 2010 East Dunbartonshire ranked 3rd in Scotland and was the only Scottish area in the  British Top 20 in 2008 A Legatum Prosperity Index published by the Legatum Institute in October 2016 showed East Dunbartonshire as the most prosperous council area in Scotland and the ninth most prosperous in the United Kingdom. Political composition. At the first election to East Dunbartonshire Council in April 1995, 26 councillors were elected for a four-year term. Labour gained an outright majority and formed a single-party administration, headed by Charles Kennedy and Michael McCarron as leader and depute leader, with John Dempsey and Ann Cameron taking the civic posts of Provost and Depute Provost. Cllr Kennedy was  the then leader of Strathkelvin District Council, and continued to hold that post during the shadow year of East Dunbartonshire until the final abolition of the district council in April 1996. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives were the only other parties represented on East Dunbartonshire Council and sat in opposition for the next four years. The number of councillors was reduced to 24 at the May 1999 election, when the Labour Party was again returned as the largest group, but without an overall majority. At the statutory meeting, Charles Kennedy and Rhondda Geekie were appointed as leader and depute leader  of a minority Labour administration, but the Provost and Depute Provost roles were taken by Lib Dem councillor Robin McSkimming and Conservative councillor Anne Jarvis. Within a few months, the Labour administration fell, and with support from the Conservatives, the Lib Dem councillors Keith Moody and John Morrison took over as leader and depute leader of a new administration in which members of both the Lib Dem and Conservative groups held the various convenerships. At the May 2003 election, the Liberal Democrats further increased their representation on the council, securing 12 out of the 24 seats. With the reduced Labour  group declining to put forward nominations, Lib Dem councillors Pat Steel and Cathy McInnes became Provost and Depute Provost, and John Morrison and Fiona Risk leader and depute leader. For the next four years the Lib Dems ran a single party administration that relied, when necessary, on the casting vote of the chair. June 2004 saw the emergence of the East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance, when Jack Young and former council leader Charles Kennedy, who had been elected as Labour councillors the previous year, formed a fourth group on East Dunbartonshire Council. As a result of the 2007 election, the Scottish  Liberal Democrats were reduced to three councillors and lost control of East Dunbartonshire Council, with one of the primary grievances amongst the electorate being fortnightly waste collection, after the introduction of kerbside collections for recycling plastics, glass, metals and paper. Although the SNP were elected as the largest group (winning their first ever councillors on East Dunbartonshire Council), the administration became a Labour/Conservative coalition due to no single party having overall control. The leader of the council was Labour councillor Rhondda Geekie and the position of provost (initially Labour councillor Alex Hannah) was subsequently held by Lib Dem councillor  Eric Gotts. The depute leader and depute provost were the Conservative councillors Billy Hendry and Anne Jarvis. In December 2009, Lib Dem representation increased briefly to 4, following Ashay Ghai's win in the Bearsden South by-election caused by the resignation of the Conservatives' Simon Hutchison. However, their numbers reverted to 3 in June 2011, when Lib Dem councillor Duncan Cumming resigned from the party citing issues relating to the Liberal Democrats' role in the UK coalition government, sitting thereafter as an independent. The 2012 election, again returned a council where no single party had overall control, and the  administration became a three-way Labour/Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition. The leader of the council remained Rhondda Geekie, but Labour councillor Una Walker became provost. The depute leader and depute provost were the Lib Dem councillor Ashay Ghai and the Conservative councillor Anne Jarvis. EDIA councillor Charles Kennedy, of the Campsie and Kirkintilloch North ward, died on 13 July 2012. The subsequent by-election took place on 13 September, where Gemma Welsh (Scottish Labour) was elected. Thereafter the EDIA was voluntarily deregistered, its remaining councillor, Jack Young, continuing as an independent for the remainder of his term, finally retiring from  the council in May 2017. Following a disagreement between the Liberal Democrats and their administration colleagues, the ruling three-party coalition reverted to a minority two-party Labour/Conservative coalition in January 2016, and the Conservatives' Billy Hendry resumed the role of depute council leader. The number of seats on the local council was reduced to 22 at the 2017 election, where a number of long-standing councillors from all parties announced their intention to stand down. No single party gained overall control, with the SNP being elected as the largest group and the Conservatives gaining their highest ever number  of councillors. Rhondda Geekie, former Labour councillor and leader of the council since 2007, and Ian Mackay, former SNP Group Leader, lost their seats. Wards. Since 2007, the council (as with all others in Scotland) has been elected using multi-member wards, each returning three councillors using a single transferable vote system of proportional representation. Initially this retained the number of councillors at 24 following on from the same number of single-member wards in previous elections, divided equally across eight wards. However, a national boundary and population review prior to the 2017 Scottish local elections led to the number  of East Dunbartonshire wards being reduced to seven and the number of councillors being reduced to 22. These current wards are: Education. Closed schools. Bishopbriggs High School Thomas Muir High School Auchinairn Primary School Gask House Primary School Lenzie Primary School Lenzie Moss Primary School St Agatha's Primary School St Flannan's Primary School St Joseph's Primary School Woodhill Primary School