Agenda Document Pack - Cross Party Sounding Board - 12/02/2025
Renfrewshire Council · 12 February 2025
Back to Cross Party Sounding Board — 12 February 2025 and its agenda
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06/02/2025 Notice of Meeting and Agenda Cross Party Sounding Board Date Time Venue Wednesday, 12 February 2025 12:00 Corporate Meeting Room 2, Council Headquarters, Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley, PA1 1AN Membership Councillor Iain Nicolson (Convener): Councillor Jacqueline Cameron (Depute Convener): Councillor Andy Doig: Councillor Anne Hannigan: Councillor James MacLaren: Councillor Iain McMillan: Further Information This is a meeting which is open to members of the public. A copy of the agenda and reports for this meeting will be available for inspection prior to the meeting at the Customer Service Centre, Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley and online at http://renfrewshire.cmis.uk.com/renfrewshire/CouncilandBoards.aspx For further information, please email democratic-services@renfrewshire.gov.uk Members of the Press and Public Members of the press and public wishing to attend the meeting should report to the customer service centre where they will be met and directed to the meeting. MARK CONAGHAN Head of Corporate Governance
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06/02/2025 Items of business Apologies Apologies from members. Declarations of Interest and Transparency Statements Members are asked to declare an interest or make a transparency statement in any item(s) on the agenda and to provide a brief explanation of the nature of the interest or the transparency statement. 1 Second Review of Scottish Parliamentary Boundaries – Publication of Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament Report by Chief Executive 1 - 10
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Cross Party Sounding Board On: 12 February 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Executive ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Second Review of Scottish Parliamentary Boundaries – Publication of Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The Council’s response to Boundaries Scotland’s Publication of Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries was agreed at the meeting of the Cross Party Sounding Board held on 23 October 2024. Following the submission of the response the Council was provided the opportunity to reiterate its position on the various proposals at a Local Inquiry which was held on 28 November 2024. 1.2 Boundaries Scotland has now published Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament. A copy of these proposals is appended to this report. 1.3 This report details Boundaries Scotland’s latest proposals and sets them against the issues raised by Elected Members at the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 26 September 2024 and the response agreed by the Cross Party Sounding Board at its meeting held on 23 October 2024. 1.4 The deadline for the consultation on the Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament is 24 February 2025. Item 1 Page 1 of 10
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___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 That Boundaries Scotland’s Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament be considered; and 2.2 That it be noted that the Chief Executive will submit a response on behalf of the Council by the public consultation deadline of 24 February 2025. _________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 First Consultation - Provisional Proposals for Scottish Parliament constituencies 3.1.1 Boundaries Scotland published its Provisional Proposals for Scottish Parliament constituencies in May 2023 and following the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 22 June 2023 a response was submitted to Boundaries Scotland which, amongst other things, called for a Local Inquiry to allow the Council to make a case for the proposals to be re- examined, especially in relation to the constituency design approach. The response set out that it was also apparent that a number of the proposals ran contrary to the rules Boundaries Scotland were required to follow when conducting reviews of Scottish Parliament boundaries: • take account of council area boundaries. • create constituencies and regions that have broadly the same number of electors • take account of special geographical considerations (including in particular the size, shape and accessibility of a constituency or region). • take account of local ties and other inconveniences caused by changes to constituencies. 3.1.2 The constituency design approach saw Renfrewshire included in a grouping with East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Glasgow City Councils. The proposal resulted in 12 constituencies wholly within these Council areas. It then followed that this grouping would lose one seat. The Council response argued that this approach was difficult to understand and had no basis in the legislative position or the rules set out for such a review. Page 2 of 10
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3.1.3 The Local Inquiry sat at the Lynnhurst Hotel, Johnstone on 14 December 2023. The Head of Corporate Governance spoke at the Local Inquiry and set out the Council’s position on Boundaries Scotland’s proposals. 3.2 Second Consultation - Revised Proposals for Scottish Parliament constituencies 3.2.1 Boundaries Scotland’s Revised Proposals were published on 16 April 2024. The revised proposals in respect of the Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituency boundaries were an improvement compared to the initial proposals. However further issues were highlighted and submitted to Boundaries Scotland relative to the new Erskine and Cardonald constituency as follows:- 3.2.2 The first issue related to the proposed constituency’s boundaries, specifically the proposal to include part of Glasgow’s Ward 5 (Govan) within the boundaries. The area in question, Shieldhall contained an electorate of only 1,161 and it was suggested that given traditional links Glasgow Govan Ward 5 should remain intact within the proposed Glasgow Central constituency and that the Erskine and Cardonald Constituency should only contain that part of Cardonald which had already been included in the boundary for the new Paisley and Renfrewshire North UK Parliamentary boundary. 3.2.3 The second issue relative to the proposed new Erskine and Cardonald Constituency related to its title and specifically to the exclusion of the Royal Burgh of Renfrew from the title. 3.3 Third consultation - Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries 3.3.1 Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries were published by Boundaries Scotland on 26 September 2024, and given the date of publication, the same day as the meeting of Renfrewshire Council, a verbal report was provided at that meeting by the Head of Corporate Governance. 3.3.2 In terms of the Further Proposals for constituencies, Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald was one of six Scottish constituencies to have both a new name and new boundaries. Page 3 of 10
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3.3.3 In relation to boundary changes: • the boundary between the proposed Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituencies was amended to include the Phoenix Retail Park within the Paisley constituency area; • the boundary between the proposed Eastwood and Renfrewshire West constituencies reverted to the existing Scottish Parliamentary boundary with the inclusion of Neilston in Renfrewshire West; • the boundary between the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency and the Glasgow Central constituency was amended with Shieldhall being retained within the Glasgow Central constituency; • to address this imbalance in the electoral quota created by Neilston being included within the Renfrewshire West constituency, the boundary between the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald and the Renfrewshire West constituencies was amended to include Bishopton within the Renfrewshire West constituency. 3.3.4 At that time, Boundaries Scotland also published its Provisional Proposals for region boundaries. There are eight Scottish Parliament regions, each returning seven regional (list) MSPs. The rules governing the boundary setting process for regions state “a constituency must fall wholly within a region” and “the regional electorate must be as near the regional electorate of each of the other regions as is practicable, having regard (where appropriate) to special geographical considerations. 3.3.5 The Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries set out that the Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituencies would continue to form part of the West of Scotland region while the new Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency would form part of the Glasgow region. This meant that while areas in the East end of Paisley would continue to be part of the West of Scotland region, areas of Renfrewshire to the West including Bishopton and Erskine would be represented by MSPs from the Glasgow region list. It also resulted in Ward 2 being split between two separate regions with Gallowhill lying in West Scotland but Renfrew in the Glasgow region. 3.3.6 A proposed response to the consultation, was submitted to the meeting of his Board on 23 October 2024, including the views expressed at the Council meeting by elected members. 3.3.7 The proposed response reiterated the view that Boundaries Scotland’s approach to constituency design was difficult to understand. The Council’s response to the first round of consultations on the Initial Proposals for constituencies recognised that the constituency designed approach wholly ignored the potential impact of the region review and Page 4 of 10
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was therefore fundamentally flawed. The response also highlighted the difficulties which would be faced by the Returning Officer in terms of administering three constituencies, two of which would feed their region list vote totals to the West of Scotland region, which the Returning Officer already administers, and one constituency which would feed its region list votes to the Glasgow region Returning Officer. The response also covered off the views expressed by elected members at the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 26 September 2024 including the suggestion that, should the Commission continue with the current recommendations, the Council could seek a judicial review of the process underpinning the review. 3.3.8 The finalised response issued to Boundaries Scotland included the views of the Cross Party Sounding Board that the entirety of Ward 8 remain in the Renfrewshire West constituency and that reference also be made to the role of List MSPs, their relationship with the regions they represented and the need to have understandable geographical boundaries and contain electorates with local ties, common interests and connections. 3.3.9 Following the submission of the response the Council was provided the opportunity to reiterate its position on the various proposals at a Local Inquiry which was held on 28 November 2024. 3.4 Fourth consultation on Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament 3.4.1 Having considered responses to the last round of consultation, Boundaries Scotland published Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament on 24 January 2025. 3.4.2 The new proposals are set out below against, where appropriate, the Council’s comments previously submitted to Boundaries Scotland: Boundaries Scotland Additional Proposals Comments The Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency to be renamed Renfrewshire North and Cardonald This is a new proposal – no observations on the proposed renaming of the constituency. The Council had proposed that Cardonald be removed from the constituency given the excessive constituency population size (62,842) in relation to the quota (59,902) and taking into account future population Page 5 of 10
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growth in this constituency. The electorate for this constituency has further increased to 63,745 with the addition of Langbank (please see note below). However, given that the issue of constituency electorate size has already been raised on a number of Occasions with Boundaries Scotland, no further observations are suggested on this matter. Langbank has been included in the Renfrewshire North and Cardonald constituency (previously it was included in the Renfrewshire West constituency) and Glasgow airport has been returned to the Paisley constituency, following existing Ward boundaries. Boundaries Scotland has included these proposals following the Council’s previous submission highlighting the existing links between Langbank and Erskine and the issues caused by the splitting of an existing Council ward to move the airport outwith the Paisley constituency. No further observations are suggested on this matter. The Renfrewshire West constituency has been renamed the Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley constituency This is a new proposal. The Council had proposed that the constituency be renamed Renfrewshire South. However, no further observations on the proposed renaming of the constituency are suggested. The boundary of the proposed constituency at the Phoenix Retail Park has been amended to follow Ward boundaries Boundaries Scotland has included these proposals following the Council’s previous submissions. All of Ward 8 now sits within the Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley constituency Revised Regional proposals The Renfrewshire North and Cardonald constituency will now sit in the West Scotland Region and not the Glasgow Region Boundaries Scotland has included this proposal following the Council’s previous submissions. No further observations are suggested on this matter. Page 6 of 10
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3.4.3 Boundaries Scotland appears to have taken on board most of the comments submitted by the Council in response to the last round of consultation and at the Local Inquiry. All three local constituencies, Renfrewshire North and Cardonald (previously named Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald following the last consultation); Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley; and Paisley, will now remain in the West Scotland Region which was one of the main objections to the previous proposals. A number of the Council’s comments in relation to constituency boundaries have been taken into account and are reflected in the revised boundaries of the three constituencies. 3.4.4 The principal outstanding matter relates to the inclusion of Cardonald in the Renfrewshire North and Cardonald constituency and the impact that this has on the constituency’s electorate. This issue has been raised numerous times with Boundaries Scotland and also at the local inquiries and the Council position has not been accepted. The addition of Langbank to the constituency has actually increased the electorate from 62,842 to 63,745 (based on 2022 electorate figures). It is unlikely that any further changes will be made to the proposals already either changed or rejected as this would require further consultation. However, while officers are of the view that no there is little likelihood of further changes being made, taking into account the further changes to the individual constituencies and other localised considerations which may have Ward-level implications, it is appropriate to have Elected Member consideration of the position. Accordingly, the Board is invited to consider the Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament. Any comments will be submitted to Boundaries Scotland by the 24 February deadline. 3.4.5 After the consultation closes Boundaries Scotland will consider all responses received. If changes are made, to the Provisional Proposals for regions or the Further Proposals for constituencies, another one- month consultation will be held. A final report is expected to be submitted to Scottish Ministers by 1 May 2025. The new boundaries will be effective at the next Scottish Parliament election, timetabled for May 2026. _________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial - none 2. HR & Organisational Development - none. 3. Community/Council Planning – none Page 7 of 10
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4. Legal – as detailed in the report 5. Property/Assets - none 6. Information Technology - none 7. Equality & Human Rights (a) The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety - none 9. Procurement - none. 10. Risk - none 11. Privacy Impact - none 12. Climate Risk - none 13. Children’s Rights - none. 14. Cosla Policy Position - none _______________________________________________________ List of Background Papers (a) Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries - Initial Proposals - Constituencies published May 2023 (b) Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries – Revised Proposals – Constituencies published April 2024 (c) Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries – Further Proposals – Constituencies and Provisional Proposals – Regions published 26 September 2024 (d) Second Review of Scottish Parliamentary Boundaries – Publication of Additional Proposals for constituencies and Revised Proposals for regions for the Scottish Parliament Page 8 of 10
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All the foregoing can be found at Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries | Scottish Boundary Commission (e) Report to meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 22 June 2023 “Second Review of Scottish Parliamentary Boundaries – Publication of Provisional Proposals for Constituencies” (f) Report to meeting of Cross Party Sounding Board held on 23 October 2024 ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Mark Conaghan Mark.conaghan@renfrewshire.gov.uk Telephone: 0300 300 0287 Page 9 of 10
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