Thursday, March 13, 2008
Deal on council numbers?
Despite the recent reduction in the “love in” the DUP and SF may have reached a deal on the number of councils. According to the BBC, a deal is imminent on reducing the number to 11. SF had wanted 7, some of the other parties 15. We do not have finalised information on what the exact boundaries will be though I see the Impartial Reporter is reporting that Omagh and Fermanagh will merge. The final decision on the boundaries will come under Arlene Foster’s remit at Enviroment.
Turgon @ 10:32 AM
Sammy Morse “Some absolute abortions in there … Omagh/Fermanagh … have no community focus at all. “
I don’t see your reasoning there. I always thought there was a good connection between those from the Omagh area and Fermanagh. Rural, nationalist majority but a large unionist minority, both now using the same hospital. Both suffering from distrust of government / officialdom due to distance in miles and ‘poor mouth farmer syndrome’. Both have strong connections with the neighboring border counties in RoI.However the pubs in Enniskillan are better than Omagh and the other 30 counties would like to see the Ernesiders win football rather than Mickey Harte’s crew
I’m not challenging you but would like if you could expand on your opinion of Omagh/Fermanagh. Thanks, yours is one of the few knowledgeable opinions on this site.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:03 PMfor the nit pickers:
of course, Omagh doesn’t border the RoI but Tyrone does and as such I included this as a similarity w Fermanagh.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:08 PMBefore Malcom Redfellow adds to his list of things to write to ‘Points of View’ about, he might want to note that it’s the Derry City Council area that is shown in lilac and this is what the ‘Derry’ refers to.
No name change yet....
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:09 PMBad news for Limavady. The bigots are back in charge.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:43 PMActually Limavady Wan, it’ll be a great opportunity for Limavady. The fear by many in the area was that the Borough would come under an all-encompassing city governance which - let’s face it - only cares about one thing: itself.
I pity Strabane, to be honest. It will be like current rural Derry - a wee add-on to the (and I use the word advisedly) city.
Under this model, Limavady will be able to at least fight for resources on a reasonably semi-fair basis. Also, don’t forget that area has been working far more with, and has many more linkages with the “Causeway Coast” area. This is a key chance for it to develop its rural tourism, and many other aspects of local economy.
The Borough has been run from Dungiven for far too long. Bigotry is not only a sin that can be attributed to the P/U/L community.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:56 PMBy the way - there is not much love lost between Omagh and Fermanagh. It’s a hospital thing. And certainly at Council level, Fermanagh wants nothing to do with Omagh. “Bitter” and “animosity” are two words which spring to mind.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:57 PMStarHound @ 07:09 PM:
I don’t frequent “Points of View” or the other Beeb resorts any more: they’ve sussed I’m an alias, and put me on ignoral. Sigh ... it’s a tough life if you weaken. But—cheers up—you can always get another pseudonym!No: my real point was this is all distraction therapy, confuse-a-cat week stuff.
There’s going to be a lot of time and effort spent on adjusting dividing lines by a street or townland, just to satisfy a local politico’s wish for survival. It won’t work, because an odd half dozen in-fill houses spoil all previous assumptions. Then more blood and thunder on naming our own little patch of sunshine (which, in NI, is going to be infinitely frustrating, and works decent folk into a frightful froth). And people, or some of them, are going actually to believe this amounts to democracy and local control.
Anyone H2G2-savvy might be recalling Marvin:
“I didn’t ask to be made: no one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter. I don’t think it even occurred to them that I might have feelings. After I was made, I was left in a dark room for six months… and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I called for succour in my loneliness, but did anyone come? Did they hell. My first and only true friend was a small rat. One day it crawled into a cavity in my right ankle and died. I have a horrible feeling it’s still there...”
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 08:04 PMSammy Morse: Some absolute abortions in there - Lisburn/Castlereagh, Omagh/Fermanagh and Ballymena/Carrick/Larne have no community focus at all.
I agree wholeheartedly with the notion that Ballymena/Carrickfergus/Larne conglomeration is ill-thought out.
Where will this entity be based - Carrick (tucked away at the bottom with Antrim between it an Ballymena), Ballymena (tucked away at the top with Antrim in the way again) or the bottom right corner notion of Larne as the base.
A better idea (from a Carrickfergus perspective) would have been to shift those Newtownabbey areas which are to be moved into the North Belfast parliamentary constituency from South Antrim into Belfast and merge the remainder of Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus and Antrim together.
This is a 2 party fudge.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 08:12 PMAnother Limavady Wan “there is not much love lost between Omagh and Fermanagh. It’s a hospital thing.”
Those I spoke with say that Omagh didn’t nothing constructive about holding onto their hospital until it was too late in comparison to the efforts made by Fermanagh ….and I heard this from people from Omagh
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 09:22 PMSo what have Saintfield and Crossmaglen got in common? Both will be in the new Down/Newry/Armagh set-up, (unless boundary commission acts)
Leaving politics/religion aside, how do you administer an area like that?
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 10:22 PMWas just going to make the Saintfield/Crossmaglen point, Eddie. That one in particular looks pretty hideous on a map. And what will they call it? Also, the Dungannon/Cookstown/Magheafelt council will contain bits of 3 separate counties (as Dungannon currently contains a small slice of north Armagh). I still think they should revert to the old county council formula myself, while retaining the likes of say Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Castlereagh in the greater Belfast area. Maybe even separate councils for Derry city and the rest of the county (the latter administered from Coleraine or Limavady). You could still work it that there’s approx. equal numbers of nationalist/unionist councils if that’s so important.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 10:50 PMThe last time this came up I did up a proposal for an 11 council model. I still think it makes more sense than the one proposed now.
Sorry for using the community background map but it does show the wards. Here’s the proposal again for the crack.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~newsbase/11CouncilProposal.html
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 10:51 PMInteresting proposal Niall, I think a lot of people would be happy with an arrangement like that (including myself as a Tyrone man).
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 11:01 PMSF seem to have negotiated an excellent deal here for six county nationalists. SDLP take second place now in each and every council and the leadership of SF within the six county nationalist community is further promoted. Another good days work by Sinn Féin; another nail in the coffin of the SDLP.
Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 @ 11:19 PM“Another good days work by Sinn Féin; another nail in the coffin of the SDLP.”
Obey the Party. Never question the Leadership. They are infallible. It’s all for the Love of Big Brother…
I love reading posts like this. It always puts me in mind of how the Wall would never fall. Or how China would never accept any sort of free market.
A Dublin supporter too. So rare, he had to remind us there were some down there…
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 01:33 AMThe good thing is the DUP stopped Sinn Fein battle for seven councils 6 are controlled by Unionism Belfast stays the same, if the UUP had have gor Castlereagh added to Belfast wish it could still do under the review of local boundries then there would have been 6 Nationalist Councils not four, well done DUP.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 07:23 AMRaven
I hope you are going to dish out the same stuff to the troll T&J;as you did to dublinsinnfeinsupporter !!
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 07:49 AMI couldn’t give a fiddlers about the carve-up, but 11 councils is still far too many for a country with less than 2 million people and a local assembly. Anything less than 26 is a welcome improvement, though.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 08:03 AMDK
That’s the trouble with Belfast - expand the boundaries in any direction and you end up with a unionist majority on the council.
So that’s what we’re reduced to? A unionist majority is unacceptable? That’s gerrymandering.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 08:11 AMI am turning into Victor Meldrew: I don’t believe it!
They just took the feckin’ average!! (7{SF}+15{DUP})/2 = 11 ...
What genius came up with that ....Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 08:23 AMI’m looking out the window at a citybus route, a mile and a bit from central station, inside the city’s ring road. Apparently it’s not in Belfast!
Parts of the current council areas known as Newtownabbey and Castlereagh, along with those currently within the Lisburn boundary but really being in Westest Belfast should all come within any new BCC area. Anything otherwise is a total nonsense.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 08:34 AMAbsolutely, the Dowie.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 08:41 AMDK : “That’s the trouble with Belfast - expand the boundaries in any direction and you end up with a unionist majority on the council.”
Willowfield: “So that’s what we’re reduced to? A unionist majority is unacceptable? That’s gerrymandering.”
Yes, you’re very perceptive. That’s why we need mandatory power sharing on all councils - like in the assembly. Funny no-one is talking about this - too concerned with their private feifdoms.
Or alternatively, we could simply have 2 councils - one for prods and one for taigs. We could call it “the assembly” or something.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 09:17 AMYes, you’re very perceptive. That’s why we need mandatory power sharing on all councils - like in the assembly. Funny no-one is talking about this - too concerned with their private feifdoms.
But apparently it’s OK to have some nationalist-controlled councils and some unionist-controlled councils ... as long as none of them is Belfast.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 09:20 AMOverehere,
Really, do I need to? Do I need to write the words you’re already thinking? lol
These models were drawn up at a point where I can nearly use the phrase “years ago”. There’s no “well done Sinn Fein/DUP” about it.
Now if they had actually sat down, and drawn up a completely NEW model, then I might have agreed with all the congratulations. But they didn’t.
Seven was no good. Fifteen was too many. It was always going to be eleven. It was just a question of which one. My only shock at the whole thing was the prevarication and obfuscation that meant it took so long.
Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 @ 09:28 AM
