Irvine West is one of the nine wards used to elect members of the North Ayrshire Council. Created in 1980, Irvine West was originally a single-member first-past-the-post ward before it was expanded in 2007 to become a multi-member ward which elects four councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system and covers an area with a population of 14,972 people.
Boundaries
Irvine West was created by the Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1979 as one of the 30 wards of Cunninghame District Council. The original boundaries took in the western part of Irvine on the Firth of Clyde coast up to the River Garnock and included the abandoned Snodgrass Village and Bogside Racecourse.[2] There were minor changes to the boundaries following the Second Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1994 which saw the ward's southern boundary extended south to the council's border with Kyle and Carrick District Council to include the Dundonald Links golf course.[3] After the implementation of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the boundaries proposed by the second review became the Formation Electoral Arrangements for the newly created North Ayrshire Council – a unitary authority for the area previously under Cunninghame District Council. Further minor alterations saw the ward's northeastern boundary moved east following the Third Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1998 to run along Kilwinning Road.[4]
As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, council elections would be run under the single transferable vote and new multi-member wards would be introduced. As a result, Irvine West was combined with other wards covering Irvine. The former Irvine North, Irvine Townhead and Irvine Vineburgh and Woodlands South were completely subsumed and a small area from both of the former Irvine Landward and Woodlands North and Girdle Toll wards were added. The new boundaries would cover everything west of the A78 plus the south-eastern industrial area around Drybridge and Shewalton.[5] The Fifth Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements saw the ward's area reduced as a new Irvine South ward was created. As a result, territory west of the River Irvine including the abandoned Bogside Racecourse, the Fullarton area of Irvine, and everything south of the A71 was transferred to Irvine South. Despite the changes, which saw the ward's area halved, Irvine West retained four councillors.[6] The ward's boundaries were unchanged following the 2019 Reviews of Electoral Arrangements.[7][8]
