Review Of Electoral Arrangements - Council Backs Nairn Campaign

Highland Councillors have given their unanimous support to a campaign to persuade the Scottish Executive to include Piperhill and Cawdor within Nairn in new council boundaries which will take effect from May next year.

They fully backed a call by Nairn Provost Councillor Sandy Park to fight the corner of the two Nairn-shire communities, who wish to maintain their long-established ties with Nairn.

The council is to seek the support of Highland MSPs and MPs in arguing that Piperhill and Cawdor should be included in the four-member Nairn multi-member ward rather than in the four-member Culloden and Ardersier ward.

Councillor Park said: "I am delighted to have received the unanimous support of the council. We will now liaise closely with our MSPs and MPs to highlight our very strong case with a view to overturning the recommendation of the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland."

Councillor Park appreciated that the Boundary Commission had a job to do in ensuring parity of electors within the new multi-member ward system.

He added: "We are not going to change the minds of the Commission so this needs to progressed through political campaigning. The people of Cawdor and Piperhill can be assured we will campaign hard to persuade the Executive to make what is a very minor adjustment to the boundary proposals."

Councillor Park highlighted that the Arbuthnott Commission had just published its final report entitled "Putting Citizens First: Boundaries, Voting and Representation in Scotland"

He said: "Putting the citizens of Cawdor and Piperhill first is exactly what we aim to do here."

The Boundary Commission is creating 22 multi-member wards in Highland, distributing a total of 80 elected members into 8 three-member and 14 four-member wards. This is to accommodate the introduction of proportional representation and multi-member wards, using a single transferable voting system.