THE POLITICAL MAP OF SCOTLAND IS BEING REDRAWN….MAYBE?
You might have heard that some changes are happening regarding the Council Ward boundaries for the 2017 election but there are also proposals for changes to the Westminster boundaries. We thought we would put together a handy guide to what on earth is happening!
So what's happening?
Well..it's not what's happening but what is being proposed.In 2011 a review of all the boundaries across the UK was put forward by individual boundary commissions. The proposals were rejected by the House of Commons in Jan 2013. However, David Cameron(remember him?) revived the proposals in 2015 promising to "cut the cost of politics".So what are the proposals?
The general idea was to make sure that each constituency was of equal size.After looking at the electorate and working out the average size of each constituency it has been proposed that each constituency has an average electorate size of around 76,000. There were only two exceptions to this proposal in Scotland and they were: Orkney and Shetland and Na h-Eileanan an Iar(WesternIsles).Their electorate was smaller than 76,000 and they also had geographic reasons not to be merged with an another area. However, the other much bigger proposal was to cut the size of the house of commons by 50.In 2015 there were 650 MPs elected.These proposals bring the number down to 600.How does this affect Scotland and also Glasgow?
Scotland would see its number of MPs drop from 59 MPs to 53. Glasgow would lose 1 MP. In 2015 we elected 7 SNP MPs but if these proposals are approved then this would drop to 6. In 2015 the constituencies were: Glasgow North Glasgow South Glasgow East Glasgow North East Glasow North West Glasgow South West Glasgow Central. The proposal is that it would drop to 6 and would be: Glasgow North Glasgow East Glasgow West Glasgow South East Glasgow South West Glasgow Central To see what the proposals are, then click here and you can see the maps.So this is happening then?
Not at all! You might have noticed that we use the word "proposal" a lot! That's because that is all they are at this moment. This has a long way to run.This was David Cameron that pushed this forward back in 2015 and there is nothing to say that parliament will approve it.They are due to vote on it sometime in 2018.There are public hearings to be had as well.If you are interested in getting involved then click here.If you wish to make a statement at a Public Hearing, please email: bcs@scottishboundaries.gov.uk or phone 0131 244 2001. However...there is the matter of whether Scotland will be in the UK come 2020!So there are council ward changes?
Absolutely. Come May 4th 2017 these changes will be in place.Glasgow will see an increase in councillor numbers, going from 79 councillors to 85, representing 7 3-member wards and 16 4-member wards.
Prior to this Maryhill and Springburn branch had 3 wards within its boundary.
These were Canal,Maryhill/Kelvin and Springburn.
This has now increased to 5 wards' which are:
(To see the new maps just click on the names below.)
To see other wards within the Glasgow area then click the link below.