WIREDGOV

Issued on behalf of The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland has begun its public consultation on proposed electoral wards for each council area as part of the Fifth Reviews of Electoral Arrangements. Its proposals contain recommendations for councillor numbers in each of Scotland’s 32 council areas and the number, boundaries and names of wards.

Ronnie Hinds, Chair of the Commission, said:

“Consultation is a vital part of our work and having completed our consultation with councils, and amended a number of our proposals in the light of these, we now want to hear from local residents, community groups and organisations.

We have a statutory obligation to conduct reviews and we are required to ensure that the number of electors per councillor in each ward in a council area is as nearly as may be the same - but subject to that we also need to take account of local ties and the public are best placed to tell us about these.

We look forward to positive engagement with communities across Scotland over the next 12 weeks and have today launched our consultation portal which will allow people to see our proposals and submit their comments to us online including suggested revisions to the maps setting out ward boundaries. Paper copies of our proposals are available at display points across council areas.”

When reviewing electoral arrangements the Commission is required to take account of the following factors:

• the interests of effective and convenient local government;
• within each council, each councillor should represent the same number of electors as nearly as may be;
• local ties which would be broken by making a particular boundary;
• the desirability of fixing boundaries that are easily identifiable; and
• special geographical considerations.

The proposals for consultation with the public:

• provide for 1,219 councillors in 352 wards: a decrease of 4 councillors and 1 ward relative to existing arrangements.
• preserve 120 existing wards.
• contain 95% of wards that are forecast to be within 10% of parity (only 83% of existing wards are within 10% of parity).
• contain only 3 wards that are forecast to be 15% or more from parity (19 existing wards are forecast to be 15% or more from parity).
• mean that councillors will, on average, represent electorates that are forecast to be 4.6% larger or smaller than the council average – under the existing arrangements councillors would represent electorates that are forecast to be on average 6.0% larger or smaller than the council average.

Details of the Commission’s proposals in each council area, and the display points, are available on its website: http://www.lgbc-scotland.gov.uk/ Attached at Appendix A is a summary of the proposals in each of the 32 council areas. The consultation portal is available at: https://www.consultation.lgbc-scotland.gov.uk/

The reviews will result in recommendations to Scottish Ministers for the number of councillors on each council, the number and boundaries of wards; and the number of councillors in each ward.

The Commission expects to make its recommendations to Scottish Ministers in 2016, and that the resulting wards will be available for the local government elections in May 2017.

Notes To Editors

Contact for Further Information:

Isabel Drummond-Murray

Secretary to the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland

Tel: 0131 538 7510, Mobile: 07757197287 (from 3 August)

Information on the review can also be found on the Commission’s website: www.lgbc-scotland.gov.uk