Fife Council is the local authority for the Fife area of Scotland and is the third largest Scottish council by number of councillors, having 75 elected council members.[2]
Councillors make decisions at its regular council meetings, or at those of its nine other general committees (covering for example tourism and transportation, education, environment, housing, licensing etc.), two planning committees, and seven area committees.[3]
A Provost of Fife is elected from among the councillors every five years, who chairs the full council meetings and acts as ceremonial head of the council.[4] The current Provost is former football manager Jim LeishmanMBE, who was first elected to the post in May 2012 and subsequently re-elected in 2017 and 2022.[5] Political leadership is provided by the leader of the council, with the current leader being Labour councillor David Ross, who has been leader since 2014, being co-leader with David Alexander of the SNP between 2017 and 2022 when he became sole leader again.
The first election to Fife Regional Council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new system came into force on 16 May 1975. A shadow authority was again elected in 1995 ahead of the change to council areas which came into force on 1 April 1996. Political control since 1975 has been as follows:[8]
Fife Council is based at Fife House on North Street, Glenrothes. The building was built in 1969 for the Glenrothes Development Corporation, and became headquarters of Fife Regional Council on its creation in 1975. Prior to 1975 the old Fife County Council had been based at County Buildings, Cupar. Fife House passed to the new Fife Council on local government reorganisation in 1996.[13]
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