An Taobh Siar agus Nis

An Taobh Siar agus Nis
Na h-Eileanan Siar
Boundary of An Taobh Siar agus Nis in Na h-Eileanan Siar from 2007–2022.
Population	2,668 (2021)[1]
Electorate	2,552 (2022)
Major settlements	Barvas Port of Ness
Scottish Parliament constituency	Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Scottish Parliament region	Highlands and Islands
UK Parliament constituency	Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Current ward
Created	2007 (2007)
Number of councillors	3
Councillor	John N. MacLeod (Independent)
Councillor	Kenneth MacLeod (SNP)
Councillor	Donald MacSween (Independent)
Created from	Barvas and Arnol Carloway Dell Gress Laxdale Port of Ness Shawbost

An Taobh Siar agus Nis (Scottish Gaelic for 'West Side and Ness') is one of the 11 wards of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Scottish Gaelic for 'Council of the Western Isles'). Created in 2007, the ward elects three councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system. Originally a four-member ward, the number of members elected in An Taobh Siar agus Nis was reduced following a boundary review and it has elected three councillors since the 2022 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar election.

Independents have dominated elections in the Western Isles and the majority of councillors elected in the area have had no party affiliation. However, since 2012, the Scottish National Party (SNP) have held one of the seats.

Boundaries

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2007 Scottish local elections. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so An Taobh Siar agus Nis was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards. It contained all of the former Dell and Port of Ness wards, the majority of the former Barvas and Arnol and Shawbost wards as well as part of the former Carloway, Gress and Laxdale wards. The ward centres around the towns of Barvas and Port of Ness in the northwest of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It includes the remote and uninhabited Isle of Rona in the north Atlantic Ocean – the northernmost part of the council area.[2] Proposals in the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections would have extended the ward south to include Carloway.[3] However, these were not adopted by Scottish ministers as plans for the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 would bring forward an interim review following the 2017 elections.[4]

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 allowed for the creation of single- and dual-member wards to allow for better representation of island areas. The boundaries for An Taobh Siar agus Nis were unaffected by the 2019 Reviews of Electoral Arrangements – instigated as a result of the act. However, the ward was reduced from a four-member ward to a three-member ward to improve electoral parity.[5]

Councillors

Year	Councillors
2007		Agnes Rennie (Independent)		John MacKay (Independent)		Kenneth M. Murray (Independent)		Iain Morrison (Independent)
2012		Kenneth MacLeod (SNP)
March 2015	Alistair MacLennan (Independent)
October 2015			John N. McLeod (Independent)
2017	Kenny J. MacLeod (Independent)
2022			Donald McSween (Independent)

Election results

2022 election

Main article: 2022 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar election

An Taobh Siar agus Nis – 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Independent	John N. MacLeod (incumbent)	25.0	346	356
	SNP	Kenny MacLeod (incumbent)	21.8	302	365
	Independent	Donald MacSween	19.6	271	282	288	290	339	479
	Independent	Dorothy Morrison	16.8	233	242	248	250	283
	Independent	Donald J. MacLeod	9.5	131	133	135	138
	SNP	Finlay J. MacLeod	7.4	102
Electorate: 2,552   Valid: 1,414   Spoilt: 29   Quota: 347   Turnout: 55.4%

Source:[6]

2017 election

Main article: 2017 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar election

An Taobh Siar agus Nis – 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Independent	John N. MacLeod (incumbent)	23.7	339
	SNP	Kenneth MacLeod (incumbent)	19.4	277	286
	Independent	Kenny J. MacLeod	16.7	239	260	261	310
	Independent	John MacKay (incumbent)	15.4	220	224	224	254	261	339
	Independent	Alistair MacLennan (incumbent)	13.5	193	200	201	238	247
	Independent	Malcolm McTaggart	11.3	161	164	164
Electorate: 2,541   Valid: 1,429   Spoilt: 35   Quota: 286   Turnout: 57.6%

Source: [7]

2015 By-election

An Taobh Siar agus Nis By-election (7 October 2015) – 1 Seat[8]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Independent	John Norman MacLeod	86.9%	886
	Independent	Richard Froggatt	7.4%	75
	Scottish Green	Gavin MacLeod Humphreys	5.8%	59
Valid: 1,020   Quota: 511   Turnout: (39.8%)

2012 Election

2012 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar election

An Taobh Siar agus Nis - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Independent	Iain Morrison (incumbent)††††	24.18%	354
	Independent	John MacKay (incumbent)	21.17%	310
	SNP	Kenneth MacLeod	20.36%	298
	Independent	Kenneth MacLeod Murray (incumbent) ††	19.74%	289	316.4
	Independent	Alastair MacLennan	8.13%	119	128.3
	Independent	Alastair Dunlop	6.42%	94	103.3
Electorate: 2,599   Valid: 1,464   Spoilt: 21   Quota: 293   Turnout: 1,485 (56.34%)

2007 Election

2007 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar election

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar election, 2007: An Taobh Siar agus Nis

Party		Candidate	FPv%	%	Seat	Count
	Independent	Iain Morrison	463	25.9	1	1
	Independent	John MacKay	335	18.7	2	3
	Independent	Kenneth MacLeod Murray	313	17.5	3	5
	Independent	Annie MacSween	277	15.5
	Independent	Agnes Rennie	267	14.9	4	7
	Independent	Iain MacLeod	118	6.6
	Independent	Malcolm McTaggart	14	0.8

References

1. "An Taobh Siar agus Nis". Scottish Government. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
2. "Fourth Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements; Na h-Eileanan an lar Council Area" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. May 2006. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
3. "Fifth Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements; East Ayrshire Council Area" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. May 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
4. "Council ward boundaries agreed". Scottish Government. 14 September 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
5. "Review of Electoral Arrangements; Na h-Eileanan an Iar Council Area" (PDF). Boundaries Scotland. June 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
6. Faulds, Allan. "Comhairle nan Eilean Siar 2022". Ballot Box Scotland. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
7. Teale, Andrew. "Local Elections Results 2017 Eilean Siar". Local Elections Archive Project. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
8. "Comhairle nan Eilean Siar – 2015 Press Releases". cne-siar.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017.