Redrawing the lines

The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland is responsible for carrying out reviews of the boundaries of local authority areas; carrying out reviews of electoral wards for local authorities; and responding to requests for reviews of electoral wards or local authority areas. The commission is an independent, non-political body created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The fifth review will result in recommendations for the number of councillors on each council, and the number and boundaries of wards. However, it will not look at the external boundaries of council areas. The last set of reviews was completed in 2006 following the introduction of multi-member wards for Scottish council elections. The number of councillors on each council was last reviewed shortly after council reorganisation in 1996.

The commission will draw up recommendations for the number of councillors in each local authority based on a methodology that, for the first time, takes into account levels of deprivation as well as population distribution.

Using these factors, similar councils are grouped together for the purpose of determining councillor numbers. The first stage of the review comprises consultation with councils on the number of councillors.

The next stage will be consultation with the public on councillor numbers, expected to commence in May 2014. Later stages will involve consultation on proposed ward boundaries. 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
• special geographical considerations

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

Former chief executive of Fife Council, Ronnie Hinds was recently appointed chairman of the commission. He toldHolyrood about the scale of the task facing them.

He said: “The purpose of the review is to look at the number of councillors that each council has and therefore, in Scotland as a whole. Having determined that in consultation with the councils and the public, we will then look to draw the ward boundaries around that number for each council. It’s important in the first stage of the review we get as good an answer as we can to the question, ‘how many councillors should there be for each council’. That’s where we start. It’s a two-stage process, first of all, we determine the right number of councillors and having done that, we determine the ward boundaries.

“You only have to look around Scotland to see what a varied country it is. The terms under which we do our work mean these reviews encompass all of Scotland. If we were doing our work differently, and it is done differently in other parts of the UK, you might be able to deal with councils one at a time and take more cognisance of local issues, issues of geography, etc but we haven’t got that luxury. The legislation under which we work says we view all councils at the same time. We need a methodology which works equally well for all 32 councils including all the diversity they represent.

“The timescale for this review is it starts this month, in February, and we have to have it completed by 2016 so that it can be agreed by ministers. All we do is make recommendations to ministers, they’re the ones who will decide this. That gives them plenty of time to consider what we propose and implement it in time for the next set of local government elections which will be in 2017.

“Consultation is a key part of the review. It would be arrogant for us to try as a commission, with five members, supported by some very good officers, to say, ‘we’ve got a view of how this should work best for all 32 councils in Scotland’. The consultation is pretty extensive. We start with a two-month consultation period with the councils. After that, we then consult with the public.

“We’re trying to make good use of technology. If you want to do consultation, you have to make it easy for those you are consulting with, including members of the public. By the time we engage with the public on this, in May of this year, we’ll have our website updated to have a portal on it which will give people access to various tools so they can not just look at what we’re proposing but they can look at the numbers we’re proposing and say whether they agree if that’s right or wrong for their area.

“When we move to the second phase, drawing the ward boundaries, this is where it gets quite complicated. However, we’ll be able to put maps up, giving interactive tools to members of the public and others so they can look at the ward boundaries we’re proposing and they can play around with them and give us their feedback. We’re trying to make this as accessible as we can do and give people the tools to participate in this if they want to.”
Hinds said since local government was reorganised in 1996, there hasn’t been any major changes to the councillor numbers.

He added: “You only have to briefly reflect how much water has flowed under the bridge in the past 20 years to see we would be derelict in our duty if we didn’t take a fundamental look at how the number of councillors has been determined. For example, in that 20-year period, the population of Scotland as a whole, between the 2001 and the 2011 census, has increased by over five per cent. The electorate, which is what we have to work with here, increased by about two per cent. There’s been a significant shift in the population of the country. Within the 32 councils there have been some quite interesting variances there.

“Some have seen an increase in their population of up to 20 per cent in the 10-year period, others have seen a reduction of over 10 per cent. You only have to think it through to see that that is one reason why we should be looking hard at the number of councillors in a given council because the population they represent has shifted quite dramatically in the space of a decade or so, never mind 20 years. As well as the population-based changes, there have been changes in local government itself, for example, the change to multi-member wards and the change to the way councils in general are governed.

“What we have is advice from the minister [Derek Mackay] that he would find it difficult to contemplate an increase in the number of councillors so we have to be observant of that as we go about our work. If we’re proposing a methodology which had the effect that some councils might gain in councillor numbers, then the implication is others would have to have the number reduced as a consequence. In fact, the methodology we are going to propose is very likely to have that effect.”