Fife Council


Fife Council is the local authority for the Fife area of Scotland and is the third largest Scottish council, with 75 elected council members.
Councillors are generally elected every five years. At the 2012 election there were 78 councillors elected, but this was reduced to 75 by the time of the 2017 election, after a review by the Boundary commission for Scotland. The number of wards was reduced from 23 to 22.
Councillors make decisions at its regular Council meetings, or those of its nine other general committees and three planning committees.
Following the May 2017 council elections no party was in overall control, resulting in a Power Sharing Agreement being drawn up between the Scottish National Party and the Labour group to share control equally. David Alexander and David Ross were agreed as co-leaders of the council.
A Provost of Fife is elected every five years, who chairs the full council meetings and acts in a ceremonial capacity on behalf of the council. The current Provost is former football manager Jim Leishman MBE, who was first elected in May 2012.

Political composition

Immediately following the May 2017 election, the council was composed of the following parties:
PartyCouncillors
SNP29
Labour24
Conservative15
Liberal Democrat7

The Conservatives made significant gains and, while the SNP lost its leader on the council, Neale Hanvey, it ended up as the largest party. The SNP and Labour agreed to govern in coalition, with joint council leaders.
Following the May 2012 election, the council was composed as follows:
PartyCouncillors
Labour35
SNP26
Liberal Democrat10
Independent4
Conservative3

Labour ran a minority administration.