Inverclyde Council

Prior to 1975 the area was the western part of the historic county of Renfrewshire. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 replaced Scotland's counties, burghs and districts with a two-tier system comprising upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. Inverclyde was created as one of nineteen districts within the Strathclyde region. Further reforms in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 saw the Strathclyde Regional Council abolished and Inverclyde become a council area, taking over the former regional council's roles in the area.[3]

In 2005, the council was criticised by the Accounts Commission for poor leadership and accountability.[4] The chief executive resigned and various changes to the council's internal structures were made in response.[5][6]

Until 2007, Inverclyde was the last authority in the United Kingdom not to have named its wards; whilst the local authority reserved its right to name wards, it did not to supply any names to the Local Government Boundary Commission. This was rectified in the 2006 review leading to the new wards used for the 2007 election, although the six multi-member wards created then used only vague geographical descriptions ('Inverclyde North', 'Inverclyde East', 'Inverclyde South West' etc.), in contrast to the majority of wards in Scotland.

The first election to Inverclyde District Council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new system came into force on 16 May 1975. A shadow authority was again elected in 1995 ahead of the reforms which came into force on 1 April 1996. Political control of the council since 1975 has been as follows:[7]

Inverclyde District Council

Inverclyde Council

Since 2007 elections have been held every five years under the single transferable vote system, introduced by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004. Election results since 1995 have been as follows:[7]

Wards

Map of the council's ward boundaries as of 2017

Six multi-member wards (20 seats) were created for the 2007 election, replacing 20 single-member wards which had been in place since the 1980s. The representation was increased to 22 councillors across 7 seats for the 2017 election:[14]

Ward number	Ward name	Location	Seats	Population (2019)
1	Inverclyde East[lower-alpha 1]		3	11,340[15]
2	Inverclyde East Central[lower-alpha 2]		3	9,512[16]
3	Inverclyde Central[lower-alpha 3]		3	11,926[17]
4	Inverclyde North[lower-alpha 4]		4	13,759[18]
5	Inverclyde West[lower-alpha 5]		3	10,411[19]
6	Inverclyde South West[lower-alpha 6]		3	11,649[20]
7	Inverclyde South[lower-alpha 7]		3	9,203[21]
Total			22	77,800

1. Inverclyde East is primarily Kilmacolm plus eastern Port Glasgow (Park Farm etc) and an extensive rural hinterland at Strathgryffe.
2. Inverclyde East Central covers the majority of Port Glasgow plus Gibshill.
3. Inverclyde Central covers eastern Greenock and a rural hinterland at Gryffe Reservoirs; created for the 2017 election.
4. Inverclyde North covers northern and central Greenock.
5. Inverclyde West covers Gourock.
6. Inverclyde South West is primarily Inverkip and Wemyss Bay plus south-western Greenock (Larkfield etc) and a rural hinterland at Loch Thom.
7. Inverclyde South covers southern Greenock.