Elections to The Highland Council were held on 5 May 2022, the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.

For the first time, a political party won the most seats in a Highland Council election as the Scottish National Party (SNP) replaced independent councillors as the largest group on the council after winning 22 seats. In total, 21 independents were elected. The Liberal Democrats gained five seats to hold 15 while the Conservatives matched their record-breaking performance at the 2017 election by holding 10 seats. The Greens overtook Labour to become the fifth-largest group on the council after gaining three seats to hold four. Labour lost one seat to hold two.

Following the election, the SNP and independent groups formed a coalition to run the council.

Background Previous election

At the previous election in 2017, a plurality of councillors returned were independents with 28 elected – seven fewer than the previous election. The Scottish National Party (SNP) were the largest political party elected with 22 seats while the Conservatives won their first seats on the council since 1995 as they gained 10 seats – their best ever result in the region. Both the Liberal Democrats and Labour lost five seats to hold 10 and three respectively while the Greens won their first representation on the council.

As a result, the independent group formed a coalition administration with the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups to run the council.

+2017 Highland Council election resultPartySeatsVote shareIndependent2836.1%SNP2225.0%Conservatives1015.7%Liberal Democrats1012.8%Labour36.9%Green13.1%

Source:

Electoral system The election used the 21 wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 74 councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system – a form of proportional representation – where candidates are ranked in order of preference.

Composition Since the previous election, there were several changes in the composition of the council. A number were changes to the political affiliation of councillors, including SNP councillors Calum MacLeod, Maxine Smith, Pauline Munro and Liz MacDonald who resigned from the party to become independents and independent councillor Donnie Mackay who resigned from the independent administration to join the Conservatives. Independent councillor Andrew Baxter was removed from the independent administration and initially continued under the designation "Real Independent" before joining the Conservatives. SNP councillor Ken Gowans resigned from the party to become an independent in 2017 before subsequently rejoining the party the following year.

In total, nine by-elections were held and resulted in an independent gain from the Liberal Democrats, a Liberal Democrats gain from the SNP, an SNP gain from the Liberal Democrats, an SNP hold, an independent hold, an independent gain from the Conservatives, two Liberal Democrats gains from independents and an SNP gain from the Conservatives. Independent councillor Ben Thompson resigned from the council in November 2021 and Tom Heggie, also an independent councillor, died in February 2022 which left vacancies on the council which would not be filled as they occurred less than six months before the election.

Party2017 resultFinal compositionIndependents2828SNP2219Conservative1010Liberal Democrats1011Labour33Green11 Notes

Retiring councillors Of the 72 sitting councillors before the election, 30 did not stand for re-election. Additionally, four councillors contested different wards from the ones they previously represented. With four sitting councillors defeated at the polls, only 38 sitting councillors were re-elected in 2022. WardPartyRetiring councillorNorth, West and Central SutherlandSNPKirsteen CurrieLiberal DemocratsLinda MunroThurso and North West CaithnessConservativeDonnie MackayWick and East CaithnessLiberal DemocratsJill TiltEast Sutherland and EddertonLabourDeirdre MackayWester Ross, Strathpeffer and LochalshSNPIan CockburnAlexander MacInnesConservativeDerek MacLeodCromarty FirthIndependentMike FinlaysonCarolyn WilsonDingwall and SeaforthIndependentAlister MacKinnonBlack IsleLiberal DemocratsGordon AdamIndependentJennifer BarclaySNPCraig FraserEilean a' CheòIndependentJohn GordonCalum MacLeodCaol and MallaigIndependentAllan HendersonLiberal DemocratsDenis RixsonAird and Loch NessIndependentHelen CarmichaelMargaret DavidsonInverness CentralIndependentJanet CampbellSNPEmma RoddickInverness Ness-sideConservativeCallum SmithInverness MillburnLabourJimmy GrayCulloden and ArdersierIndependentRoddy BalfourNairn and CawdorIndependentLiz MacDonaldConservativePeter SaggersInverness SouthLiberal DemocratsCarolyn CaddickFort William and ArdnamurchanSNPBlair AllanNiall McLean

Proposed boundary changes Following the passing of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, a review of the boundaries was undertaken in North Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, Highland, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and the Western Isles. The Act allowed single- or two-member wards to be created to provide better representation of island communities. New ward boundaries were proposed by Boundaries Scotland in 2021 which would have reduced the number of wards by one to 20 and the number of councillors by one to 73. The proposals would have made no changes to the boundaries or numbers of councillors in Cromarty Firth; Fort William and Ardnamurchan; Nairn and Cawdor and Thurso and North West Caithness. The boundaries in and North, West and Central Sutherland would have remained the same but the numbers of councillors would have been reduced from four to three and from three to two respectively. Further changes would have seen four new wards created in Inverness, with the total number of councillors representing the city rising from 16 to 18 while Caol and Mallaig would have been renamed Caol, Mallaig and the Small Isles to recognise the island communities within the ward. Boundaries Scotland said the changes would "create more recognisable ward boundaries by Inverness, Tain and Knoydart" and "better align with the historical Caithness–Sutherland county boundary". However, the proposals in Highland were rejected by the Scottish Parliament and the 21 wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 remained in place.

Candidates The total number of candidates fell from 166 in 2017 to 142. The election again saw the number of independent candidates outstrip the number selected by any political party as 40 stood for election – down from 61 in 2017. However, this was less than half the number which had regularly contested elections in Highland since the local government reforms in the 1990s which peaked at 108 in 2003 – the last election before the introduction of STV. The SNP fielded more candidates than any other political party at 23 – down from the 32 fielded at the previous election – but they did not contest every ward as they had in 2017. Both the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives contested every ward and stood 21 candidates each as they did in 2017. Labour stood 14 candidates – down from 18 – while the Greens stood 11 candidates – up from eight – and the Libertarians stood two candidates – up from one in 2017. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stood a candidate for the first time since 2012. For the first time, the Alba Party (four), the Scottish Family Party (one), the Independence for Scotland Party (ISP) (one) and the Freedom Alliance (one) stood candidates in a Highland election. Neither the Scottish Socialist Party, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) nor the Scottish Christian Party, which had all contested the 2017 elections, stood any candidates.

Uncontested seats After nominations closed on 30 March 2022, there were not enough candidates in Caol and Mallaig to require an election: three candidates stood for the three seats available. As a result, Green candidate Andrew Baldrey, Liberal Democrats candidate John Colin Grafton and Conservative candidate Liz Saggers were elected without a poll. This was one of a number of uncontested wards across Scotland, with a total of 18 councillors automatically elected. Despite their candidate being elected without a poll, the lack of interest in standing for election was called a "threat to local democracy" by the Greens. During the 2017 local elections in Scotland, just three council wards were uncontested, but votes were held in every ward in both 2007 and 2012 – the first elections to use multi-member wards and the Single transferable vote. Public disinterest in standing for election to local councils has been linked to the "ridiculous" size of some local authorities and the low pay councillors receive for their work.

Results

Source:

Note: Votes are the sum of first preference votes across all council wards. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 4 May 2017. This is because STV has an element of proportionality which is not present unless multiple seats are being elected. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at the dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Ward summary

|- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2|SNP !colspan=2|Independent !colspan=2|Lib Dem !colspan=2|Conservative !colspan=2|Green !colspan=2|Labour !colspan=2|Others |- |align="left"|North, West and Central Sutherland |bgcolor="#efe146"|35.1 |bgcolor="#efe146"|1 |17.3 |1 |28.1 |1 |11.0 |0 |colspan="2" |3.9 |0 |4.6 |0 |3 |- |align="left"|Thurso and North West Caithness |18.4 |1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|36.2 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|1 |27.5 |1 |17.9 |1 |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |4 |- |align="left"|Wick and East Caithness |25.3 |1 |23.3 |1 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|29.8 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|1 |15.1 |1 |colspan="2" |6.5 |0 |colspan="2" |4 |- |align="left"|East Sutherland and Edderton |26.5 |1 |19.0 |1 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|35.8 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|1 |17.0 |0 |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |1.6 |0 |3 |- |align="left"|Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh |bgcolor="#efe146"|41.1 |bgcolor="#efe146"|2 |28.7 |1 |12.9 |0 |17.3 |1 |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |4 |- |align="left"|Cromarty Firth |29.1 |1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|29.2 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|2 |27.9 |1 |6.7 |0 |2.9 |0 |4.2 |0 |colspan="2" |4 |- |align="left"|Tain and Easter Ross |30.6 |1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|37.3 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|1 |21.5 |1 |10.6 |0 |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |3 |- |align="left"|Dingwall and Seaforth |bgcolor="#efe146"|32.2 |bgcolor="#efe146"|1 |28.0 |2 |16.7 |1 |14.0 |0 |4.5 |0 |4.7 |0 |colspan="2" |4 |- |align="left"|Black Isle |24.9 |1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|26.3 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|1 |15.7 |1 |14.8 |0 |13.3 |0 |5.2 |0 |colspan="2" |3 |- |align="left"|Eilean a' Cheò |22.6 |1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|56.1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|2 |3.5 |0 |10.7 |1 |colspan="2" |3.5 |0 |3.7 |0 |4 |- |align="left"|Caol and Mallaig |colspan="2" |colspan="2" | |1 | |1 | |1 |colspan="2" |colspan="2" |3 |- |align="left"|Aird and Loch Ness |26.2 |1 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|31.0 |bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|1 |6.6 |0 |21.1 |1 |10.2 |1 |4.9 |0 |colspan="2" |4 |- |align="left"|Inverness West |31.2 |1 |8.1 |0 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|34.2 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|1 |9.3 |0 |7.5 |1 |8.4 |0 |1.3 |0 |3 |- |align="left"|Inverness Central |bgcolor="#efe146"|41.3 |bgcolor="#efe146"|2 |5.1 |0 |6.4 |0 |12.8 |0 |7.5 |0 |24.1 |1 |2.8 |0 |3 |- |align="left"|Inverness Ness-side |29.2 |1 |5.6 |0 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|44.5 |bgcolor="#ffa500"|1 |8.7 |0 |5.2 |0 |6.4 |1