1974 Moray District Council election

Elections to Moray District Council were held on 7 May 1974, on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. This was the first election to the district council following the implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The election used the 18 wards created by the Formation Electoral Arrangements in 1974. Each ward elected one councillor using first-past-the-post voting.^[1]

Moray was a non-partisan district. Only a few political party members contested the election and all but one of the 17 seats were won by independents. The remaining seat was won by the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Prior to 1974, the area that was to become Moray, was split between two counties – the County of Banff and the County of Moray. Within that were seven of the 11 burghs of the County of Banff (Aberlour, Buckie, Cullen, Dufftown, Findochty, Keith and Portknockie) and five of the six burghs of the County of Moray (Burghead, Elgin, Forres, Lossiemouth and Branderburgh and Rothes). These were all small burghs so the burgh council had limited powers which included some control over planning as well as local taxation, building control, housing, lighting and drainage with the rest of the local government responsibility falling to the county council. Although the County of Moray and the County of Nairn remained as separate entities, they had been combined for most but not all purposes as a result of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 and the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947.^[2]

Following the recommendations in the Wheatly Report, the old system of counties and burghs – which had resulted in a mishmash of local government areas in which some small burghs had larger populations but far fewer responsibilities than some large burghs and even counties^[2] – was to be replaced by a new system of regional and district councils. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 implemented most of the recommendations in the Wheatly Report. The western and southern parts of the County of Banff which included the seven burghs was combined with the northern part of the County of Moray which contained the five burghs and was placed into the Moray district within the Highland region.^[2][3]

Source:^[4]

Moray, like the other three of the other four districts in Grampian, was non-partisan and controlled by independent candidates who won all but one of the 18 seats. The remaining seat was won by the Scottish National Party (SNP). The Conservatives won control the regional council which held its first election on the same day. Across Scotland, Labour won the most votes, the most seats and the most councils of any party.^[4]