Badenoch and Strathspey

Badenoch and Strathspey as a local government district 1975 to 1996

Badenoch and Strathspey is a local government ward of the Highland council area and a ward management area of the Highland Council in Scotland. Historically it was one of eight districts of the two-tier Highland region, 1975 to 1996, and one of eight management areas of the Highland Council, 1996 to 2007.

The district was created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 as a one of the eight districts of the Highland region. The same legislation abolished counties and burghs as local government areas, and the Badenoch and Strathspey district was formed by combining the areas of the burgh of Kingussie and district of Badenoch from the county of Inverness with the district of Cromdale from the county of Moray. The traditional area of Strathspey was thus divided between the Highland region and the Grampian region.

In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, the region became a unitary council area and the districts were abolished. The Highland Council, as the new unitary authority, then adopted the areas of the former districts as management areas and created area committees to represent them. The Badenoch and Strathspey management and committee areas consisted of five out of the 72 Highland Council wards. Each ward elected one councillor by the first past the post system of election. In 1999, however, ward boundaries were redrawn but management area boundaries were not. As a result area committees were named for and made decisions for areas which they did not exaclty represent. The new Badenoch and Strathspey committee area consisted of five out of the 80 new Highland Council wards.

New wards were created for elections this year, 2007, polling on 3 May, under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, and, as the wards became effective for representational purposes, the Highland Council's management and committee structures were re organised. The Badenoch and Strathspey management area and the Badenoch and Strathspey area committee were therefore abolished. The new wards are much larger, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, and Badencoch and Strathspey is now a single ward electing four of the council's 80 members and a ward management area within the council's new Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate management area. The new corporate area is one of three covering the council area. It consists of nine of the 22 wards of the council area, and the nine wards elect 34 of the council's members.

See also