Controversial council boundary changes are a “tragedy” that will undermine efforts to tackle depopulation in fragile corners of the Highlands, MSPs have been told.
Highland Council leader Margaret Davidson said the plans – which include leaving two or three councillors to cover some of the biggest local authority wards in Europe – had left elected members in the region feeling “deeply unhappy and dismayed”.
Giving evidence to Holyrood’s local government committee on Tuesday, Ms Davidson called for the proposals to be thrown out and for MSPs to ask Boundaries Scotland to go back to the drawing board.
She said Highland councillors were alarmed at several of the suggested changes, including those covering Sutherland, Wester Ross, Skye, Loch Ness, and Culloden and Ardersier.
“In Highland we actually do have a single view across the chamber, all 74 of us, that we would like to ask the committee to consider rejecting the Boundary Commission proposals,” she said.
“We are deeply unhappy and dismayed with some of the elements of what the Boundary Commission is proposing,” she said.
‘These are the largest wards in Europe’
The first problem Ms Davidson highlighted was a plan to reduce the number of councillors in the North, West and Central Sutherland from three to two, and in Wester Ross, from four to three.
“These are the largest wards in Europe – not in Scotland, not in Highland – in Europe. They are vast,” the independent councillor told the committee.
She added: “We think this is a real contrast to the Scottish Government’s supportive policies emerging about depopulation and that this is only going to make matters more difficult, because we believe that the challenges of representing these vast wards needs more than two and three councillors.
“We are very resistant to the idea of removing councillors.”
We think this is a real contrast to the Scottish Government’s supportive policies emerging about depopulation and that this is only going to make matters more difficult, because we believe that the challenges of representing these vast wards needs more than two and three councillors.”
Another issue related to Skye, and a proposal to reduce the number of elected members from four to three.
Ms Davidson said: “We again believe that this extraordinarily busy island is going to have its democratic representation reduced is very serious.
“The population of Skye must quadruple during the large part of the year with visitors, and the idea of losing a councillor, who have been extremely active and done very well on Skye over the last five years… To lose a councillor is a tragedy to us.”
The Highland Council leader also told the committee that residents in her own Aird and Loch Ness ward were “extremely upset” about the suggestion that it could be broken up.
And she said the Culloden and Ardersier ward was already “underrepresented”, therefore she could not understand why there was no plan to increase its representation from the current three councillors.
Boundaries Scotland
Representatives from Boundaries Scotland will give evidence to the committee on Tuesday next week.
In its report to ministers, it said: “When developing our final proposals we considered the issues raised and suggestions made during our consultations.
“We agreed that the information we had available was sufficient to reach a decision
for The Highland Council area and that there was not a need for further consultation or a local inquiry.
“We believe that our proposals fully meet all requirements of the legislation and provide for effective and convenient local government for The Highland Council area.”