The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the
2007 Scottish local elections. As a result of the
Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the
single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so Rutherglen South was formed from an amalgamation of several previous
first-past-the-post wards. It contained the majority of the former
Stonelaw ward, roughly half of the former
Cathkin/Springhall ward and all of the former
Fernhill and
Spittal/Blairbeth wards as well as a small part of the former
Bankhead ward. Rutherglen South covers a suburban area in the south of
Rutherglen including the neighbourhoods of
Burnside, Blairbeth, Cathkin,
Fernhill, High Burnside, Springhall and Spittal. The ward's western boundary is the long-established division with
Glasgow City Council. Prior to the
local government reforms in the 1990s, Rutherglen was within the
Glasgow District under
Strathclyde Regional Council. One of its single-member wards was
Fernhill, which included much of the same area as the current Rutherglen South, with the exception of the parts of Burnside north of the
Cathcart Circle Line railway tracks. Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the
2017 Scottish local elections, streets around
Overtoun Park, Dryburgh Avenue and Limeside Avenue were transferred from the ward into
Rutherglen Central and North while streets to the east of the ward around East Kilbride Road, Brownside Road and Dukes Road were transferred into Rutherglen South from
Cambuslang West. ==Councillors==