Islands Review - North Ayrshire council area Public Consultation

Overview

We have conducted a Review of Electoral Arrangements for North Ayrshire Council area.

The Review recommended to Scottish Ministers the number of councillors and ward boundaries for North Ayrshire Council.

The public consultation ran from November 2020 until January 2021.

Why your views matter

One of the main reasons we undertake reviews is that the population, and therefore the electorate, of any local authority area is constantly changing, with migration into or out of areas as well as within the same area. As a result of these changes, some councillors may represent considerably more or fewer electors than other councillors in the same council area.

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 introduced the use of one or two member wards where a ward containing an inhabited island, in addition to the current multi-member ward system. The Act requires us to review the six Councils containing inhabited islands, including North Ayrshire, as soon as possible.

We expect our proposals, if accepted, to be in place for the next local government elections in May 2022

What happens next

Thank you for your views.

The Commission has considered all responses to the consultation as it developed its final proposals for Scottish Ministers.

The proposals, if accepted, will be in place for the next local government elections in May 2022.

Our final proposals:

• retain the same number of councillors as the existing arrangements;
• retain four existing wards unchanged: Kilwinning, Irvine East, Irvine South and Irvine West;
• take into account North Ayrshire Council’s Localities and the local ties and communities that they represent;
• present a 1-member Arran ward reflecting its island status. We considered the case for a 2-member Arran ward but concluded that the special geographic circumstances of Arran did not justify a forecast variation from parity of -39%.;
• take account of the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 that allows the use of 2-member and 5-member wards to design wards that better reflect local ties in the Garnock Valley, North Coast and Three Towns (Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston); and
• present a ward boundary between Ardrossan and Saltcoats and Stevenston that follows local community council area and historical burgh boundaries.