Scottish Local Councils, Electoral Wards & Local Councillors – Political Knowledge Atlas (30 Nov 2020)
- November 30, 2020
There are 1,227 Local Councillors elected to 354 multi (3 or 4)-member Electoral Wards in Scotland’s 32 Local Councils every 5 years. Though these politicians fundamentally affect our lives on a day-to-day basis through enacting their own local policies, and their oversight of bodies delivering essential services at the local level, it’s difficult to get the big picture AND the detail, AND how both have changed over time, in the one source. This 4th edition of the first ever ‘national local’ political knowledge atlas map of Scotland helps solve that problem
Based on our latest ward general, geographic & electoral knowledge map, the embedded contextual data fields in the seed branches for each individual electoral ward & the wards as a whole are now replaced by spreadsheet tables quantifying the number of councillors by party at the ward and whole council level, as well as the overall political control, whilst the attached multiple links to general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources are retained.
There are also now knowledge seed branches for all the current Local Councillors in each ward, with those that have retired or died since they were last elected retained as sub-branches for reference. As well as their official portrait picture, there are attached links to their official profile page(s) & entry in the register of members interests. Notable changes in circumstance since they were last elected are recorded as a branch note.
All elements are coloured by party when appropriate to make this map a truly ‘visual’ political knowledge base of all Scotland’s local councils, electoral wards and elected councillors.
**NEW FOR 4th EDITION (v1.4) – Updated for the local by-elections that have occured since the 3rd edition (v1.3) was published on 18 May2020, with knowledge seed branches added for all the newly elected councillors (those of the predecessors are retained as sub-branches for reference). (Most of the elections were originally scheduled from March to mid May, however only the earliest one took place as planned before the Coronoavirus Crisis caused the postponement of the others. Further elections are planned but will take place in March 2021, assuming public health conditions allow.) W have also added a Local Council By-Election Log branch to make it easier to see where elections have taken place.**
Angus McDonald
Scotland The Map Project Director and Knowledge Mappers Founder & CEO
Map
The options to view / download this Scottish Local Councils, Electoral Wards & Local Councillors Political Knowledge Atlas (30 Nov 2020) map are in the panel below. If you are new to our maps then please browse the Knowledge Map Mini Guide first before viewing / downloading. Further down this page you can also see a summary of the map content, the main features, and some fun facts 😉 we discovered when compiling it. Please provide your feedback, or suggest additional content, in the map comments, and please also share it with your networks. You can also find other maps using the map finder panel, or the map of maps.
View / Download Options
Anybody can view the html version of this map as a standalone, full-screen webpage in a new browser tab, using the ‘View HTML map full screen’ button below. However to download the HTML5 file – for viewing on-, or off-, line in any modern browser, on any device, without additional plugins – you will need to register for basic membership (it’s free 🙂 To download the original map in MindManager (.mmap) format – for amending, adapting & repurposing in MindManager software – you will need PRO membership, available for a modest annual, or one off lifetime, fee. Already joined? Login here.
**NOTE – This ‘visually rich’ knowledge map has a large number of ‘seed branches’ which, with their associated embedded images, greatly increases the size of the HMTL file when they are all included. So users on slower internet connections and/or more limited capacity devices such as mobile phones can still work with it, we have removed varying amount of the image content and made the map available as ‘hi-fi’ (no images removed), ‘mid-fi’ (all 1,227 local councillor images removed) and ‘lo-fi’ (all ward location maps removed) versions. All versions can be accessed below.**
'Lo-Fi' Map
‘Lo-Fi’ – Minimal image content. Those deemed essential for user navigation – logos and thumbnail location maps on Local Council branches – are retained, but all other images have been removed to reduce the file size.
View 'Lo-Fi' HTML map full screen
View 'Lo-Fi' HTML map full screen
Download 'Lo-Fi' Map As An HTML5 (.html) File [11.4 MB]
Download 'Lo-Fi' Map As A MindManager (.mmap) File [7.0 MB]
'Mid-Fi' Map
‘Mid-Fi’ – Reduced image content. Useful images, such as logos and ‘thumbnail location maps’, are retained, but the photo’s of all 1,227 councillor have been removed.
View 'Mid-Fi' HTML map full screen
View 'Mid-Fi' HTML map full screen
Download 'Mid-Fi' Map As An HTML5 (.html) File [23.2 MB]
Download 'Mid-Fi' Map As A MindManager (.mmap) File [15.8 MB]
'Hi-Fi' Map
‘Hi-Fi’ – Full Iimage content. All the images included in the original, full version of the map when created are included. ‘Hi-Fi’ maps are probably best avoided when looking on mobile devices of more limited capacity, but that is not to say that they can’t be, and that they do not work fine once they have loaded. It will just take longer for them to load, say 30s – 2 mins depending on the connection.
View 'Hi-Fi' HTML map full screen
View 'Hi-Fi' HTML map full screen
Download 'Hi-Fi' Map As An HTML5 (.html) File [50.8 MB]
Download 'Hi-Fi' Map As A MindManager (.mmap) File [36.5 MB]
Knowledge Map Mini Guide
Map Summary
Scottish Local Councils, Electoral Wards & Local Councillors – Political Knowledge Atlas (30 Nov 2020)
Description
There are 1,227 Local Councillors elected to 354 multi (3 or 4)-member Electoral Wards in Scotland’s 32 Local Councils every 5 years. Though these politicians fundamentally affect our lives on a day-to-day basis through enacting their own local policies, and their oversight of bodies delivering essential services at the local level, it’s difficult to get the big picture AND the detail, AND how both have changed over time, in the one source. This 3rd edition of the first ever ‘national local’ political knowledge atlas map of Scotland helps solve that problem
Based on our latest ward general, geographic & electoral knowledge map, the embedded contextual data fields in the seed branches for each individual electoral ward & the wards as a whole are now replaced by spreadsheet tables quantifying the number of councillors by party at the ward and whole council level, as well as the overall political control, whilst the attached multiple links to general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources are retained.
There are also now knowledge seed branches for all the current Local Councillors in each ward, with those that have retired or died since they were last elected retained as sub-branches for reference. As well as their official portrait picture, there are attached links to their official profile page(s) & entry in the register of members interests. Notable changes in circumstance since they were last elected are recorded as a branch note.
All elements are coloured by party when appropriate to make this map a truly ‘visual’ political knowledge base of all Scotland’s local councils, electoral wards and elected councillors.
**NEW FOR 4th EDITION (v1.4) – Updated for the local by-elections that have occured since the 3rd edition (v1.3) was published on 18 May2020, with knowledge seed branches added for all the newly elected councillors (those of the predecessors are retained as sub-branches for reference). (Most of the elections were originally scheduled from March to mid May, however only the earliest one took place as planned before the Coronoavirus Crisis caused the postponement of the others. Further elections are planned but will take place in March 2021, assuming public health conditions allow.) W have also added a Local Council By-Election Log branch to make it easier to see where elections have taken place.**
'Knowledge Seed' Branches
With embedded features and attached multiple hyperlinks & index marker tags, ‘seed branches’ provide a ‘base level’ of contextual knowledge resources about the subject, which is retained if the seed branch is repurposed / used in other maps in future.
**NOTE – This ‘visually rich’ knowledge map has a large number of ‘seed branches’ which, with their associated embedded images, greatly increases the size of the HMTL file when they are all included. So users on slower internet connections and/or more limited capacity devices such as mobile phones can still work with it, we have removed varying amount of the image content and made the map available as ‘hi-fi’ (no images removed), ‘mid-fi’ (all 1,227 local councillor images removed) and ‘lo-fi’ (all ward location maps removed) versions. All versions can be accessed from the map viewing / download options panel.**
Scottish Local Council Seed Branch
CIRCLE = all coastal borders (ie. ‘island(s)’)
HEXAGON = all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’)
ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & Land borders
Council Name – We have taken the names of the Council from their own website, with the proviso that…
Total Elected Councillors – Electoral Wards are represented by either 3 or 4 councillors, as per the recommendations of the 
NAV – SLCs – Each Local Council seed branch is tagged with it’s own index marker, created from the branch text itself. Thus there are 2 ‘parts’ to the marker tag – Scottish Local Council Name (Council Type and identifying Codes) eg. East Renfrewshire Council (SUA – GB-ERW – S12000011 – UKM35).
SLC – Borders Types – This Marker Group indicates the status of the local authority’s borders with all of it’s equivalent neighbours, in respect to the ocean (as per the topic shape). Thus these tags will enable the filtering of a map to show / hide those areas that do / do not have a coastline.
Council Website: Home page – The ‘home page’ of the Local Council website. Some are more helpful than others in terms of guiding you through onwards navigation.
All Local Council Electoral Wards Seed Branch
‘Thumbnail’ Ward Overview Map – This is a low resolution screenshot of the official ward overview map for the Council Area, available as a PDF on the 
Title
Ward Political Events Log – The
Current Total Councillors By Party and Type & Composition of Overall Politicl Control – This embedded spreadsheet shows the total number of elected councillors for each political party currently serving on the council, colour coded as appropriate.
Individual Electoral Ward Seed Branch
we can create one that incorporates more than one visual element so that, like the ‘rich’ branch text, more core knowledge can be ‘packed in’ to a single branch without overwhelming the user.
Individual Local Councillors Seed Branch
Knowledge Resource Link Collections
The links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ public domain knowledge resources contained in these branches is the main focus of this map. Each link is attached to a single sub-branch which desctibes what it is, with sub-branches grouped into related collections, such as ‘General Knowledge Resources’ or ‘Geographic Knowledge Resources’. This makes for easier, more ‘thumb friendly’ browsing & knowledge discovery. Sub-branches can easily become ‘seed points’ if users start adding newly new knowledge discovered during their browsing.
**NOTE – There are no knowledge link collection sub-branches in this map at the moment, only multiple hyperlinks on seed branches. With 1,227 councillors in Scotland, every potential additional link ‘type’ will added 1,227 more branches to the map. Aftr embedded images, additional branches are the next biggest factor affecting map handling performance. We will however experiment in future editions**
Changelog
We are continually striving to find further, freely accessible in the public domain definitive / official / plain old useful 🙂 knowledge resources to link to in our maps, as well as keeping the existing links up to date. The changelogs below summarise the actions undertaken to initially create – and subsequently update – this knowledge map.
Map Facts
Here are some of the ‘fun facts’ 😉 about Scotland’s 354 Local Council Electoral Wards and 1,227 Local Councillors that we have discovered (and embedded!) during the process of creating this map…
Density by Geography
Smallest & Largest
Hillhead Ward [Glasgow City Council]
North, West and Central Sutherland Ward [Highland Council]
Population (2018 Est)
Smallest & Largest
Lerwick North Ward [Shetland Islands Council]
Southside/Newington Ward [City of Edinburgh Council]
Density by Population
Smallest & Largest
An Taobh Siar agus Nis Ward [Comhairle nan Eilean Siar]
Southside/Newington Ward [City of Edinburgh Council]
Gender Balance
All Councillors, Worst & Best
All Councillors
(362 out of 1,227 Female Councillors)
Councillors - Female: 367 Male: 860
Least Balanced
(0 out of 31 Female Councillors)
Councillors - Female: 0 Male: 31
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Most Balanced
(30 out of 85 Female Councillors)
Councillors - Female: 30 Male: 55
Glasgow City Council
Map Features
We take full advantage of MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features when creating our unique maps so we can pack in 1000’s of ‘bits’ of knowledge into a single, visually structured, intuitive to navigate document that can be easily shared. Here are the main features of this Scottish Local Councils, Electoral Wards & Local Councillors Political Knowledge Atlas (2 Feb 2020) …
Big Map With 100's Of Branches & Links And Capacity For Plenty More
With 8,695 knowledge resource links over 2,509 branches, this map is a useful, contextual knowledge resource in it’s own right, as well as being a visually structured index of the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the political makeup of Scotland’s 1,227 Local Councillors, 354 Electoral Wards and 32 Local Councils. Thanks to MindManager’s unique capabilities it has plenty of spare capacity for further content to be added in the future.
Main Branches Create Robust Visual Framework For 'Seed Branches'
The 1st level branches form the main (‘org-tree’) visual framework within which the map content of interest sits. It is a simple ‘A – Z’ layout, with the 32 Scottish Local Councils arranged alphabetically in 5 columns of approximately equal sizes to pack as much in to a ‘single screen view’ as possible.
Visually Rich 'Knowledge Seed' Branch For Every Scottish Local Council
The 2nd level branches are ‘knowledge seed points’ for each Scottish Local Council, to which links to public domain knowledge resources about them are attached. Visually rich & information dense, they contain the name & official area identifier codes in variably formatted (‘rich’) text – a unique MindManager featue. Visually the combined logo & thumbnail location map image aids user navigation and provides spatial context, whilst the variation in topic shape indicates the status of the borders with neighbouring councils – all coastlal (ie. island), mixed or all land (ie. landlocked). The full list of knowledge embedded within, and attached to, this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Visually Rich Electoral Wards, Local Councillors & Political Control 'Seed Branches'
The 3rd level branches are ‘knowledge seed points’ for the political make up of the Local Council, both in terms of wards – there is a good quality thumbnail image (ie. still readable & usable when zoomed in) of the official Local Government Boundary Commission ward overview map to provide spatial context – whilst a table shows the current total local councillors by party, coloured by party. The political control of the council is also shown – be it an overall majority rule by one party group, a minority administration or a coalition between 2 or more party groups (including ‘independent’ councillors). There are also multiple hyperlinks to public domain general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about the council wards as a whole. The full list of knowledge embedded within, and attached to, this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Visually Rich 'Poilitical Knowledge Seed' Branch For Each Of Scotland's 334 Electoral Wards
The 4th level branches are political ‘knowledge seed points’ for individual electoral wards. They contain the name & official ward identifier codes in variably formatted (‘rich’) text, and a thumbnail location map image to aid user navigation and provide spatial context. This is supplemented by the variation in topic shape, which indicates the status of the borders with neighbouring electoral wards – all coastlal (ie. island), mixed or all land (ie. landlocked). There is also a table showing the current total local councillors by party, coloured by party, as well as multiple hyperlinks to public domain general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about the ward. The full list of knowledge embedded within, and attached to, this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
*An asterisk indicates noteworthy happenings in the ward since the last Local Council Election – such as the resignation / death of a councillor and the subsequent by-election to elect their successor – which are recorded in the attached topic note.
Visually Rich 'Political Knowledge Seed' Branch For Each Of Scotland's 1,227 Currently Elected Local Councillors
The 5th level branches are ‘knowledge seed points’ for individual Local Councillors, coloured by their poitical party allegiance. They contain the councillors name prefixed by ‘Cllr’ and suffixed by ther party allegiance in brackets, as well as a thumbnail of their official portrait picture. Their ward and council names are also included to make it easier to keep track of who’s who and where’s where’ when many councillor branches are open on screen at one time. There are also multiple hyperlinks to public domainl knowledge resources about the councillor. This is currently limited to their official councillor page, which will contain a variable amount of useful information depending on the individual council. There is also a link to their official register of interests if it is not contained within their main page. The full list of knowledge embedded within, and attached to, this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
*An asterisk indicates noteworthy changes in circumstances of the local councillor since the last Local Council Election, which are recorded in the attached topic note. This couls be losing the support of their party, on a temporary or permamnent basis, or their resignation or death. If they are no longer a councillor the reason why will be shown in [square brackets] and all the text will be in italics. Eeventually they will be moved to become a sub-branch of their successor once the by-election has taken place.
Attached Multiple Hyperlinks To Public Domain Knowledge Resources
Seed Branches have multiple hyperlinks attached to them (yet another unique feature of MindManager maps), which link to the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the subject. The ‘definable link text’ gives clarty as to the resource being linked to (which can be very variable if left to the default). As well as increasing the amount of knowledge that can be ‘squeezed’ into a map without increasing the ‘visual clutter’ of additional branches, it means these links can be retained if the seed branches are used in other maps, or this map is re-purposed. The full list of multiple knowledge resource hyperlinks attached to all the seed topics in this map is given in the map summary above.
Index Marker Tag Groups Enable 'Geo Intelligent' & Other Map Filtering
Branches in the map may be tagged with one or more ‘index markers’ from one or more ‘marker groups’. These enable intelligent map filtering and quick navigation. Many of the tags are ‘geographic’ in nature such that branches are tagged with ‘where’ they are – eg. administrative or electoral areas. This gives the map in-built ‘spatial intelligence’ and the ability to be ‘geo-filtered’. (MindManager software users can copy and paste any of the marker groups in any other maps). The full list of index marker tags attached to all the seed topics in this map is given in the map summary above.
Embedded Data Elements Provide Additional Contextual Knowledge
Data features embedded within seed branches – like spreadsheets, charts & data fields (another unique MindManager feature) – provide another ‘channel’ of knowlegde that adds context to the more detailed knowledge contained in the public domain resources linked to in the map. Just like in a normal spreadsheet, some of the data field values may be ‘auto-calculated’ from the others using formulae, creating data not found elsewhere in the public domain. They can also be used to ‘conditionally format’ the map eg. colouring the branches based on a particular data value (the equivelant of ‘thematic mapping’ in GIS).
Map Legend Branch Describes Each Topic 'Type' With Links To Further Information
Every map needs to have a legend that explains the cartographic structure, colours and symbology used. The ‘Map Legend’ branch describes the sub-components of each ‘type’ of map branch, with links to further knowledge resources where necessary.
'Contributing Online Knowledge-bases Branch' With Links To Further Information
We hunt down and assess many official / definitive / at least practical & useful online knowledge resources in the process of creating our maps. The ‘Contributing Online Knowledge-bases’ branch has links to all the ones that are actually linked to in the main map content, as well as some others that are a good source of general knowledge about the subject. It is a frustrating fact of life that some resources are organised better than others, and not all are ‘linkable to’ at the individual ‘building block’ level and so can’t be included in seed branches.
'Voter Help For Scottish Elections Branch' With Links To Useful Resources
The ‘Voter Help For Scottish Elections’ branch has links to useful links to help you registering to vote, find out which Local Council Electoral Ward, Scottish Parliament Constituency & Region or UK Parliament Constituency you live in, notice of any upcoming elections in your area and where to vote in them, and what the voting record for your incumbent MP’s or MSP’s.
