This was the fifth election to the district council following the local government reforms in the 1970s.

The election used the 20 wards created by the Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1980.

Each ward elected one councillor using first-past-the-post voting.

[1] Despite losing two seats and their vote share falling by 10.2%, Labour maintained control of the district council as they won 15 of the 20 seats – taking 54.7% of the popular vote.

In March 1988, the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party merged and the newly formed Scottish Social and Liberal Democrats (SSLD) matched the result of the SDP–Liberal Alliance at the previous election as they returned two councillors.