Inner East, East, South, West, North West, North East and.. Belfast
[image from the BBC report] Most of the focus on today’s announcement of the boundaries for the seven new council areas emerging from the Review of Public Administration is on the distinctly pedestrian [or Soviet? - Ed] names they have currently been given by the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner. It’s up for consultation, natch.. but if the Assembly returns, and with only Sinn Féin supporting the seven council model, it could all be academic..The names of the seven new councils:
Belfast Local Government District, incorporating the current Belfast City Council, parts of Lisburn, North Down and Castlereagh;
Inner East Local Government District, incorporating Antrim, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey Councils and the remainder of Lisburn City Council;
East Local Government District, comprising Ards, Down, parts of North Down and Castlereagh Councils;
South Local Government District, made up of Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon and Newry and Mourne;
West Local Government District, incorporating Cookstown, Dungannon and South Tyrone, Fermanagh and Omagh;
North West Local Government District, comprising Derry, Limavady, Magherafelt and Strabane and part of Coleraine;
North East Local Government District, made up of Ballymena, Ballymoney, Larne, Moyle and a major part of Coleraine.
Abucs, Nationalists actually had a fair head start last time 48.4% compared to 43.5% for Unionists. However, I don’t agree with you as it happens. You’re quite right that current electoral arrangements in Belfast are slightly skewed in favour of Unionists as a strict proportional allocation on the basis of those first preferences would result in a 25/22 split in favour of Nationalists. This is due to several factors but mainly the overrepresentation of the Shankill at the expense of Upper Falls and greater transfer cohesion among the Unionist bloc than the Nationalist. (Bluntly UUP supporters are much more likely to transfer to DUP than SDLP supporters will to Sinn Fein.)
Ultimately the proposed Belfast boundaries simply don’t make sense on the ground though. It’s utterly absurd to have Rathcoole and Bawnmore linked to Lisburn and Antrim rather than Belfast. The only justification for doing so is having a predestined hung council for Belfast – something that can change in the long run anyway.
The ultimate aim seems to have been to have a 50/50 split of councils across NI and to hell with having sensible boundaries. However gerrymandering to produce 2 one party states is only slightly worse than gerrymandering to produce a one party state. A better way would have been to have compulsory power sharing at council level. After all if they can have that for Stormont, then why not for the council that covers Stormont? Councils should reflect where people live,work and spend their free time and the proposed arrangements are a long way short of that.
Fair point Valenciano. Thanks.