Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947

58 Casual vacancies.

(1) A casual vacancy in the office of member 01 a local authority shall arise or be deemed to have arisen in any of the following events; that is to say—

(a) on the death of a member, in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen, if the death occurred in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, on the date of death, and if the death occurred elsewhere on the date on which the clerk of the authority is informed of the death;

(b) on the resignation of a member, in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen on the date on which the notice of resignation takes effect in accordance with the provisions of the last but one preceding section;

(c) on a county councillor representing a burgh ceasing to be a county councillor by reason of his ceasing to be a town councillor, in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen on the date on which he ceases to be a town councillor;

(d) in the case of the election of a person who is not qualified to be elected or who is disqualified for being elected a member of a local authority or of a member of a local authority ceasing to be qualified to be a member of the authority or becoming disqualified for being a member of the authority, on the office being declared to be vacant in accordance with the provisions of section fifty-three of this Act, in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen on the date on which the office has been declared to be vacant by the sheriff or the authority or, where an appeal is taken under that section, on the date on which the appeal is determined;

(e) on the full number of members of a local authority not being elected at an election, in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen on the date of the election;

(f) on an election of a member being declared void on an election petition or otherwise, in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen on the date of the decision of the court;

(g) on a vacancy arising from any other cause (not being a vacancy arising by reason of retirement in ordinary course or a vacancy to which the provisions of subsection (2) of this section apply), in which case the vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen on the date on which the authority determine that a vacancy has arisen.

(2) Where a person is both a county councillor representing a burgh within the county and a county councillor for an electoral division of the county, a casual vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen in the office of county councillor representing the burgh, except where all the town councillors of a burgh are county councillors by virtue of being town councillors, in which case the casual vacancy shall be deemed to have arisen in the office of county councillor for the electoral division, and the vacancy for the purposes of this section shall be deemed to have arisen on the date of election by the town council or the date of election for the electoral division, whichever is the later.