Collection MS 366 - Tayside Regional Council Conservative Group

Bruce Mackie OBE served as a councillor for Broughty Ferry on Dundee Town Council from 1966 until 1975. He represented the Barnhill area of Broughty Ferry on the Tayside Regional Council throughout its existence. In 1995 he was elected to Dundee City Council, and remained on that body until his retirement in 2007. During his time as a councillor he held various convenerships and also served as a baillie. He was Chairman of Dundee East Conservative and Unionist Association and the Conservative candidate for Dundee East at the 1997 General Election. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the City of Dundee in 2000. Bruce Mackie died in February 2015. The group was originally chaired and led by Ian Mackie CBE, a former member of Dundee Town Council (1965-1971 and 1972-1975), who served as regional councillor for Clepington-Maryfield from 1974 until 1986. After Ian Mackie lost his seat in the 1986 election he was succeeded as chair by his brother Bruce. Ian Mackie had held various council convenerships and also served as a bailie. He died in 1991. Tayside Regional Council was formed in 1974, officially coming into operation in 1975, and abolished in 1996. The Conservative Group was constituted in the Queens Hotel, Dundee on 14th May 1974, shortly after the first election to the body. The Conservatives were the largest party on the new council, but did not have a majority and formed a minority administration, although the Conservative nominee for convener, William K. Fitzgerald, the former Lord Provost of Dundee (1970-1973), was defeated for the position on a cut of the cards by the independent councillor Ian A. Duncan Millar after a tied vote. After the 1978 regional council elections the Conservatives gained a majority on the council and Fitzgerald was elected convener, a post he was re-elected to in 1982. At the 1986 election the Conservatives lost several seats and control of the council passed to a minority Labour Party Administration.