Highland Council Leader encourages response to Boundary Commission’s proposals

Leader of The Highland Council, Margaret Davidson, is encouraging people to respond to the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland’s 12 week consultation, which was launched today (30 July). 

The Council put forward three proposals in their response to the Commission’s consultation with Local Authorities. The transfer of  the polling district of Cawdor into Nairn was accepted. 

Councillor Davidson said: “We welcome the decision to agree to the Cawdor proposal, but it is disappointing that our other suggestions were not accepted.  We would encourage as many people as possible to consider the Boundary Commissions’ proposals and respond to their consultation by their deadline of 22 October 2015.”

The consultation can be found on the LGBCS website here .

Notes:

The Council agreed the following response to the Boundary Commission:

1.Caithness

 Creation of three wards with three members in Caithness by:

• Moving Polling Districts C04I, C04J and C04K from Landward Caithness to Wick, increasing Wick’s electorate from 5,692 to an estimated 6,490, 12.2% below parity.
• Moving Polling Districts C04B and C04N from Landward Caithness to Thurso, increasing Thurso’s Electorate from 6,294 to an estimated 7,483, 1.3% above parity.
• In consequence, Landward Caithness’s Electorate decreases from 8,600 to an estimated 6,613, 10.5% below Parity.

This proposal would result in an additional member for Caithness (increasing from 8 to 9) and would see the overall total of proposed members for the Highland Council increase from 74 to 75.

2. Nairn - Cawdor & Culloden - Ardersier

Transfer Cawdor into Nairn by:

Moving Polling District I18G with an estimated 594 electors from the proposed Culloden Ward. This would create a Nairn and Cawdor ward with an estimated 10,182 electors, 3.3% above parity.

Transfer Ardersier back into the Culloden ward by:

• Moving part of Polling District I18F with an estimated 1,157 electors in Ardersier from the proposed Nairn and Ardersier ward to the proposed Culloden ward. This would create a Culloden and Ardersier ward with an estimated 8,305 electors, 12.4% above parity.

3. Black Isle

Retain the Black Isle ward as it is currently configured by:

• Moving parts of the Redcastle Polling Districts R10A (S) & R10C (W) with an estimated electorate of 366 from the proposed Dingwall and Seaforth ward back to the Black Isle ward, which would result in the Black Isle ward having an estimated electorate of 8,647 which would be 17% above parity with the proposed three member ward.

The proposed Dingwall and Seaforth ward would be reduced by an estimated 366 electors, which would result in it being 2.6% below parity.

4. Inverness Central

• Inverness Central Ward to retain four members