2017 South Ayrshire Council election

Elections to South Ayrshire Council took place on 4 May 2017 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.

The Conservatives retained their position as the largest party returning 12 councillors - two more than in the previous election. The Scottish National Party (SNP) maintained their total of nine councillors to remain as the second party while Labour lost four seats. The number of independents returned remained at two.

Following the election, a coalition administration was formed between the SNP, Labour and Independent councillors, even though the Conservatives remained the largest party on the council.

Background
The total number of seats on South Ayrshire Council was reduced as part of a Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland from 30 to 28, with the total number of council wards remaining at 8. Both the Ayr East and Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton wards saw the number of seats reduced from four to three.

Results
Source:

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2012. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Ward summary
!rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|Total Cllrs !colspan=2|Conservative !colspan=2|SNP !colspan=2|Lab !colspan=2|Ind !colspan=2|Green !align="left"|Total !43.4 !12 !30.2 !9 !15.2 !5 !10.7 !2 !0.6 !0 !28
 * - class="unsortable" align="centre"
 * - class="unsortable" align="center"
 * align="left"|Troon
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|51.5
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|2
 * 30.61
 * 1
 * 13.71
 * 1
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 4.2
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Prestwick
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|46.2
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|2
 * 31.3
 * 1
 * 13.3
 * 1
 * 9.1
 * 0
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 4
 * align="left"|Ayr North
 * 25.6
 * 1
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|43.7
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 24.7
 * 1
 * 6.1
 * 0
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 4
 * align="left"|Ayr East
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|40.5
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|1
 * 36.5
 * 1
 * 17.3
 * 1
 * 5.6
 * 0
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 3
 * align="left"|Ayr West
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|59.2
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|3
 * 23.4
 * 1
 * 11.1
 * 0
 * 6.2
 * 0
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 4
 * align="left"|Kyle
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|43.8
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|1
 * 31.0
 * 1
 * 25.3
 * 1
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 3
 * align="left"|Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|36.4
 * bgcolor="lightblue"|1
 * 27.7
 * 1
 * 9.4
 * 0
 * 26.5
 * 1
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 3
 * align="left"|Girvan and South Carrick
 * 26.7
 * 1
 * 19.3
 * 1
 * 9.4
 * 0
 * bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|44.5
 * bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|1
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 3
 * - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom"
 * 1
 * 9.4
 * 0
 * bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|44.5
 * bgcolor="#c0c0c0"|1
 * colspan=2 N/A
 * 3
 * - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom"
 * }

Troon
The Conservatives (2), the SNP (1) and Labour (1) retained the seats they won at the previous election.

Prestwick
The Conservatives (2), the SNP (1) and Labour (1) retained the seats they won at the previous election.

Ayr North
Labour retained one of the two seats they had won at the previous election while the SNP and the Conservatives retained the seats they had won at the previous election and the SNP gained one seat from Labour.

Ayr East
Due to boundary changes, Ayr East lost one seat. As a result, each of the parties that won seats at the previous election (the SNP, the Conservatives and Labour) all held one seat and the SNP lost their second seat.

Ayr West
The Conservatives (2) and the SNP (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the Conservatives gained one seat from Labour.

Kyle
The SNP, Labour and the Conservatives retained the seats they won at the previous election.

Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton
Due to boundary changes, Ayr East lost one seat. As a result, the SNP, the Conservatives and independent candidate Brian Connolly retained the seats they won at the previous election and Labour lost their seat.

Girvan and South Carrick
The SNP and independent councillor Alec Clark retained the seats they had won at te previous election while the Conservatives gained one seat from Labour.