New Boundaries Won't Work for Bearsden and Milngavie
Tomorrow is the last chance to respond to the Boundary Commission for Scotland's public consultation on new Westminster Parliament constituencies. With a planned cut in the number of Scottish MPs from 59 to 53, many of the proposed new boundaries for larger constituencies make little sense to local communities.
I'm particularly concerned by the proposed boundaries between the two Dunbartonshire constituencies. That boundary cuts Bearsden in half, and would see the northern portion as part of a West Dunbartonshire focussed constituency whilst the south remains with wider East Dunbartonshire in Milngavie and Kirkintilloch.
Bearsden and Milngavie together form a well integrated community. Dividing that community between two constituencies is not in the interests of effective local representation. Where a similar division currently exists in the Scottish Parliament constituencies, even with diligent local MSPs, it can't help but have an effect on how well this community is represented.
I appreciate that in many cases across Scotland, seemingly bizarre boundaries are simply necessary to meet the terms of reference for this review. Those terms were set by a Westminster Government that has shown a complete disregard for local communities in their ideological drive to slash MP numbers. Indeed, the erosion of strong local links that would be caused by these boundary changes undermines their opposition to electoral reform.
Even within those terms, however, there must be a better solution for this area. Revised proposals should keep Bearsden and Milngavie entirely within one constituency. Ideally this would be alongside other areas within East Dunbartonshire council. However if it was necessary to include them in a West Dunbartonshire constituency, this would still provide more effective representation than the proposed division.