Kirkwall West and Orphir is one of the six electoral wards of Orkney Islands Council. Created in 2007, the ward elects four councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system and covers an area with a population of 4,018 people.
Local politics in Orkney is traditionally non-partisan and the ward has only twice elected a councillor affiliated to a political party.
Boundaries The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2007 Scottish local elections. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so Kirkwall West and Orphir was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards. It contained all of the former Scapa and Kirkwall South West ward, the majority of the former Pickaquoy and Warrenfield wards and part of the former Firth and Sunnybrae, Lynnfield and Orphir, Wells and Flotta wards as well as a small area from the former Harray and Stenness and Shapinsay and Kirkwall Harbour wards. As its name suggests, Kirkwall West and Orphir covers the western half of the town of Kirkwall on Mainland as well as a rural area to the south and west of the town around the parish of Orphir and the uninhabited Holm of Houton.
The ward's boundaries were unchanged following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections.
Following the 2019 Reviews of Electoral Arrangements, an interim review of island areas as a result of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, the ward's boundary with Kirkwall East was amended by Kirkwall Harbour to make a more identifiable boundary.
Councillors ElectionCouncillors2007Jack MoodieDavid TullockAllan LeslieRoderick McLeod2012John RichardsAlan Clouston2014 byLeslie Manson2017Sandy CowieBarbara Foulkes2022Ivan TaylorKristopher Leask(Greens)
Election results 2022 election
2017 election
2014 by-election
2012 election
2007 election
References