New electoral boundaries unveiled

0 - 0 • Published 29 May 2009 11:16 0 Comments

PROPOSED changes to electoral boundaries which send MSPs to Holyrood have been unveiled.

The Boundary Commission for Scotland recently published its recommendations in a public consultation document which if unchallenged, will see Scottish Borders Council"s Selkirkshire ward moved from the current Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale seat to the adjoining Roxburgh and Berwickshire area.

This new seat would then stretch from the North Sea to the ends of Ettrick and Yarrow Valleys, and would then be known as Roxburgh, Selkirk and Berwickshire.

The commission has also recommended that Liberal Democrat Mr Purvis" seat, having lost Selkirkshire, will take in more of south Midlothian instead and be known as South Midlothian, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.

The commission says the ideal number of voters should be 54,700. Currently the electorate in Roxburgh and Berwickshire stands at just over 48,000, and in Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, nearly 54,000.

In the plans, Mr Purvis" seat would gain just 3,500 voters.

This review comes as a result of changes in population and local government areas since they were last defined in 1995.

A local inquiry was triggered into these proposals after they were first published last year. This was held in the Eastgate Theatre on 14 and 15 October 2008.

Following this the Inquiry Reporter considered in his report that bringing large urban areas and rural areas together into one constituency could lead to an imbalance and marginalisation.

He stated: 'These considerations lead me to the conclusion, and recommendation, that the Commission should revisit the possibility of creating a single Scottish Parliamentary constituency based on the Midlothian Council area as a starting point.

'This would further avoid the somewhat uncomfortable attachment of Penicuik to the Scottish Borders.'

However this report was largely ignored by the Boundary Commission when considering their recommendations.

MSP Jeremy Purvis said: 'It is deeply disappointing that the very well considered report from the Inquiry Reporter has been totally disregarded by the Commissioners.

'He listened to the views of local councils, residents and locally elected representatives and considered their views valid that arbitrarily bringing disparate communities together to suit a mathematical quota is not the best way of establishing parliamentary constituencies.'

Tweeddale MP David Mundell said: 'I am disappointed by this decision. I wasn"t aware of anybody agreeing with the proposal for this new constituency combining parts of industrial Midlothian with Tweeddale, and indeed that was evident at the hearing held in Peebles.

'Unfortunately the Boundary Commission have to create a jigsaw and were not willing to change these proposals regardless of public opinion.'

A special Scottish Borders Council meeting is to take place on June 18 at which a response will be formulated to the Boundary Commission"s recommendations.

Tweet

This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 29 May 09

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

If you are registered with us, you can login here. If you are not registered, do so now.
Once logged in you wont have to complete word verification each time you post.

Prefer not to register?

Screen Name *required

Email (not displayed) *required

Usernames must be 4 - 20 characters. Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users can also take part in competitions and other features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Follow @peeblesnews