District of Skye and Lochalsh 1975 to 1996

Highland council area shown as one of the council areas of Scotland

Skye and Lochalsh is one of eight former local government

Local government of Scotland

Local government in Scotland is organised through 32 unitary authorities designated as Councils which consist of councillors elected every four years by registered voters in each of the council areas....

 districts of the two-tier Highland

Highland (council area)

Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. It shares borders with the council areas of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute. Their councils, and those of Angus and...

 region of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The main offices of the Skye and Lochalsh district council were in Portree

Portree

Portree is the largest town on Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is the location for the only secondary school on the Island, Portree High school. Public transport services are limited to buses....

, on the Isle of Skye.

History

As statutory

Statute

A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

 local government areas, the region and districts were created in 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

The Local Government Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that reformed local government in Scotland, on May 16, 1975....

, and abolished in 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994. The area of the region is now the Highland unitary council area, and the former Skye and Lochalsh district is within the Highland Council's Ross, Skye and Lochaber corporate management area.

The 1973 legislation abolished local government counties

Counties of Scotland

The counties of Scotland were the principal local government divisions of Scotland until 1975. Scotland's current lieutenancy areas and registration counties are largely based on them. They are often referred to as historic counties....

 and burgh

Burgh

A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...

s throughout Scotland and created a new system of nine two-tier regions and three islands council areas

Islands council areas of Scotland

Between 1975 and 1996 there were three islands council areas of Scotland:* Orkney* Shetland* Western IslesThe islands council areas were the only unitary councils created under the Local Government Act 1973, which came into force in 1975...

. Each region consisted of a number of districts and the islands areas were created as unitary council areas. The Skye and Lochash district of the Highland region was created by merging a district of the former county of Inverness

Inverness-shire

The County of Inverness or Inverness-shire was a general purpose county of Scotland, with the burgh of Inverness as the county town, until 1975, when, under the Local Government Act 1973, the county area was divided between the two-tier Highland region and the unitary Western Isles. The Highland...

 (the Skye district, consisting of the Skye

Skye

Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...

 group of Inner Hebridean islands

Inner Hebrides

The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which enjoy a mild oceanic climate. There are 36 inhabited islands and a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than...

) with a district of the former county of Ross and Cromarty

Ross and Cromarty

Ross and Cromarty is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use...

 (the South West district, consisting of an area around and including the village of Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh is a village on the northwest coast of Scotland, 63 miles west of Inverness. It is located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye...

).

The 1994 legislation abolished regions and districts and established a system of 32 unitary council areas covering the whole of Scotland, and all of the Highland districts were merged into the new unitary Highland council area.

In 1996 the new Highland Council adopted the areas of the former districts as council management areas, and created area committee

Area committee

Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees, with responsibility for services in a particular part of the area covered by the council....

s to represent them. The Skye and Lochalsh management area then consisted of six out of the 72 wards of the council area, each electing one councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

 by the first past the post system of election. In 1999 ward boundaries were redrawn to create 80 new wards. Management area boundaries were not redrawn, however, and therefore area committees ceased to represent exactly the areas for which they were named and made decisions. The Skye and Lochalsh committee continued to have six members.

Ward boundaries were redrawn again in 2007, and the council's eight management areas were abolished in favour of three new corporate management areas, including the Ross, Skye and Lochaber area which absorbed the former Skye and Lochalsh area. The Highland council area now has 22 wards and each elects three or four councillors by the single transferable vote

Single transferable vote

The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

 system, a system designed to produce a form of proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

. The total number of councillors remains the same. The Ross, Skye and Lochaber area consists of six out of the 22 wards and these ward elect 23 of the 80 Highland councillors.

There is also a Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency

Ross, Skye and Lochaber (UK Parliament constituency)

Ross, Skye and Lochaber is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 (at Westminster

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...

), but its boundaries are not exactly those of the council corporated management area. The constituency was created in 2005 with boundaries based on those of wards in use during the period 1999 to 2007.

The Skye group of islands is now a ward named as the Eilean a' Cheò ward, which elects four councillors. The Lochalsh area is now within the Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh ward, which also elects four councillors.

District coat of arms

The Skye and Lochalsh District Council coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

, granted by Lord Lyon King of Arms

Lord Lyon King of Arms

The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, the oldest...

 in 1987, featured a wavy blue fess across the centre of the shield for the Kyle of Lochalsh. Above this were emblems for the three main historic families of the Isle of Skye (Macleod of Macleod

Clan MacLeod

Clan MacLeod is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the Macleods of Harris and Dunvegan, whose chief is Macleod of Macleod, are known in Gaelic as Sìol Tormoid ; the Macleods of Lewis, whose chief is Macleod of The Lewes, are known in...

, Macdonald of Sleat and Mackinnon

Clan MacKinnon

Clan Mackinnon or Clan Fingon is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the islands of Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.Popular tradition gives the clan a Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th century historian W. F. Skene named the clan as one of the seven clans of Siol Alpin - who according to...

) and below it a stag's head from the arms of Mackenzie of Kintail

Clan MacKenzie

Clan Mackenzie is a Highland Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire.-Origins:The Mackenzies, a powerful clan of Celtic stock, were not among the clans that originated from Norman ancestry. Descendants of the long defunct royal Cenél Loairn of Dál Riata, they...

for the Lochalsh area. The gold coronet above the arms was a special pattern reserved for the arms of Scottish district councils, and was topped by thistle-heads.