Labour/Conservative coalitions to run Aberdeen and Stirling

The good news is that the Conservatives are now the third party in Scottish local government with 115 councillors against 71 for the Lib Dems. But the bad news is that the Conservatives share of the vote went down 2% on when the seats were last contested and we lost 28 councillors.

There are now lots of coalition negotiations under way. The Conservatives have agreed a deal with Labour to and independents to run Aberdeen City Council - this puts the Lib Dems and SNP into opposition. In East Lothian there is also talk of a Labour/Conservative deal. There will also be a joint Labour/Conservative administration in Stirling.

Moray will continue to be run by an independents/Conservative coalition. In East Ayrshire it seems likely there will be a Conservative/SNP administration.

In Edinburgh there will be an Labour/SNP administration leaving the 11 Conservative councillors to form the main opposition.

Perth has ten Conservative councillors and negiations are under way. As they are in Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway where the Conservatives are also relatively strong. In South Ayshire there are now Conservative councils than for any other Party so it is likely that a minority Conservative administration will be able to continue. Ther are 14 Conservative councillors on Aberdeenshire Council so that willbe another one to watch.