Council unhappy at boundary changes

North Ayrshire Council is disappointed at the Boundary Commission’s plans for the UK parliamentary constituencies in its area.

The proposals were revealed last week and would see the number of constituencies in UK reduced from 650 to 600 and from 59 to 53 in Scotland.

It is proposed that North Ayrshire will now be split among three constituencies, rather than the existing two. Only one of these, comprising Arran and the Three Towns (Kilwinning, Irvine and Dalry) will be within North Ayrshire.

Two of these constituencies incorporate areas outside Ayrshire, namely Inverclyde and West Renfrewshire. The former has placed the North Coast and Cumbraes in with Greenock, Gourock and Port Glasgow (Inverclyde), while the latter includes the north part of the Garnock Valley, namely Beith and Kilbirnie, along with Johnstone and Erskine (Renfrewshire).

The proposed boundaries also don’t align to the six localities of North Ayrshire or to the ward boundaries recently determined by Scottish ministers.

A public hearing is scheduled to take place in Ayr on December 1 to discuss the proposals and will be chaired by a sheriff principal.

A 12-week public consultation period, which ends on Wednesday 11 January 2017, has already begun.

A spokesman for the council said: “We are disappointed that the Boundary Commission’s proposals split North Ayrshire into three UK parliamentary constituencies, two of which are largely outwith Ayrshire.’