I‘m really disappointed that
the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland has recommended that the electoral boundary
for the Ferry ward should be at Victoria Road, as proposed by the SNP administration
on Dundee City Council. The Boundary Commission received nearly 1000 letters of
objection from local residents , an unprecedented number, and some well thought out arguments were made regarding community, social and historic ties.
When the commission started to look
at ward designs for Dundee it proposed a boundary for The Ferry ward along Fairfield
Road, which was bad enough, but the SNP administration decided to support an
alternative option with a boundary down Victoria Road. I opposed it then but
none of the other 28 councillors supported me.
In its final report the commission
states: ‘We noted that Dundee City Council preferred option B of LGBCS paper
2267 and agreed to adopt the suggestion as our proposals for public consultation’
I responded to the public
consultation calling for no change to the Ferry ward boundaries, no SNP
councillor, MP or MSP did during the allotted consultation period. The Scottish
Conservative Party noted the concern of local residents and put forward an
alterative proposal, should change to boundaries be needed, to create two three
member wards in Broughty Ferry: Broughty Ferry West and Broughty Ferry East but
this proposal was also rejected by the commission.
Later in the commission report it
states: ‘We noted the lack of opposition
from elsewhere in the city and the support of the council for our proposals
which incorporated the council’s suggested improvements to our original proposals.’
SNP politicians in Dundee now
seem outraged by the final recommendation of the Boundary Commission- a recommendation
that only came about because the SNP suggested it. Politics is a strange beast
indeed.
