Have your say on proposed electoral arrangements

Five more city councillors under latest proposals

The independent Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland (LGBC) has announced a 12 week period of consultation with the public on proposed electoral wards as part of the Fifth Review 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.

Proposed changes in Edinburgh would see an increase in councillor numbers: the city would have 63 elected members instead of the current 58.

Both Forth and Inverleith would retain four councillors under the latest proposals, but neighbouring wards Almond and City Centre would both gain an additional elected member to ‘address forecast disparities’.

 

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.

Proposals for Edinburgh

LGBCS’ proposals for wards in City of Edinburgh council area present an electoral arrangement for 63 councillors representing five 3-member wards and twelve 4-member wards, increasing councillor numbers in the area by 5. The proposals:

• improve overall forecast parity;
• increase the number of councillors by 1 in ward 1 (Almond), ward 2 (Pentland Hills), ward 11 (City Centre), ward 14 (Craigentinny / Duddingston) and ward 17 (Portobello / Craigmillar);
• address forecast disparities in ward 1 (Almond) and 11 (City Centre);
• re-name ward 10 to Morningside and ward 16 to Gilmerton but make no changes to other ward names; and
• make changes to ward boundaries throughout the council area to reflect the change in councillor numbers and to align with “natural communities” (a local geography used by City of Edinburgh Council).

 

A summary of ward boundary proposals is available in this Guidance Booklet part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6.

You can respond to this consultation by using the Consultation portal, or by email or post (details on this webpage).  The consultation period ends on 22 October 2015.

The Guidance Booklet for this review contains a summary of the whole process.

LGBC has made material on the proposals available at Display Points agreed with the council across the city. They are:

• City of Edinburgh Council, City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ
• Central Library, 7-9 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EG
• McDonald Library, 2 McDonald Road Edinburgh EH7 4LU
• Portobello Library, 14 Rosefield Avenue, Edinburgh EH15 1AU
• Newington Library, 17-21 Fountainhall Road, Edinburgh EH9 2LN
• Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road, Edinburgh EH13 9LY
• Kirkliston Library, 16 Station Road, Kirkliston EH29 9BE
• South Queensferry Library, 9 Shore Road, South Queensferry EH30 9RD
• Blackhall Library, 56 Hillhouse Road, Edinburgh EH4 5EG

LGBC expect to submit recommendations to Ministers in 2016. The resulting wards will be available for the local government elections in May 2017.