Boundary changes will cut nationalist representation

LISBURN Councillor Pat Catney has expressed grave concern that when Lisburn City Council merges with Castlereagh Borough Council there will be a loss of nationalist representation in the Lisburn area.

Under the plans for the amalgamation of councils, which will result in a reduction of councils from 26 to 11, parts of Lisburn will leave the city to join with outlying councils.

For example sections of Dunmurry, including Poleglass will transfer to Belfast City Council and Glenavy will transfer to Antrim Borough Council.

According to Mr Catney this will severely cut the nationalist vote in the city, meaning there will be fewer nationalist councillors on the new body.

Mr Catney said this would not be reflective of the true representation of the make up of Lisburn city as a whole.

According to the legislation, District Electoral Areas must be made up of 5, 6 or 7 wards and the task of the Commissioner is to make recommendations for the grouping of wards into electoral areas for the purpose of local government elections.

These proposals not only take into account the reduction in the number of Councils, from 26 to 11 brought about by the Local Government (Boundaries) Order (Northern Ireland) 2012, but also the resulting reduction in wards across Northern Ireland from 582 to 462. Each ward represents a seat on the council - although councillors are not elected to a particular ward; they are elected to represent the District Electoral Area by a system of proportional representation.

Thus an electoral area will be represented by 5, 6 or 7 councillors depending on the number of wards it contains.

Speaking about the proposals, Mr Mackenzie said: “The publication of my Report today is the first stage in the process to establish electoral areas for the new local government district councils in Northern Ireland.

“My proposals represent a considerable change from the current pattern in some places due to the reduction in the number of councils and the consequent fall in the number of wards. However, in other areas there is a broad similarity with the existing pattern.”

The 11 new local government districts contain a total of 462 wards and the Commissioner has recommended that there should be 36 five ward electoral areas; 26 six-ward areas and 18 seven-ward areas.

Mr Catney said he believed rather than the wards being made up of five areas, a seven seat system would be fairer.

“It would be better to do away with a new area like Culcavey and amalgamate it with one of the existing areas with more seats,” said Mr Catney. “That would give a fairer representation of what Lisburn is about.

“We have all worked hard and we are trying to show Lisburn in its true light.

“Any new boundaries should keep the balance that currently exists in the council,” he added.

“It should be a shared and inclusive council that represents a shared and inclusive society.”

A consultation period into the proposals has now begun and local people are being urged to make their opinions known.

An eight week consultation period has now begun, during which written representations must be received by Thursday June 27, 2013. Depending on the number and nature of representations which may object to the Provisional Recommendations, the Commissioner may arrange for public inquiries to be held in the autumn before independent Assistant Commissioners.

Encouraging the public to respond to the consultation, the Commissioner said: “These proposals are an essential part of the electoral arrangements for the new councils and so I hope that as many people as possible will take the opportunity to comment on them.

“I am particularly interested to hear the views of local people where there are significant changes in the overall pattern of electoral areas,” concluded Mr Mackenzie.