Banff and Buchan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the constituencies, see Banff and Buchan (Scottish Parliament constituency) or Banff and Buchan (UK Parliament constituency).
Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. It has a population of 35,742 (2001 Census). Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with associated processing and service activity.
The area is relatively self-contained, and in recent years has seen a small decline in population. It does, however, have tourism assets in its coastline, coastal villages and visitor attractions. Economic dependency, peripherality, and the future of the Common Fisheries/Agricultural Policies, are key issues. The Buchan Local Action Plan will address some of these concerns. The Area qualifies for European Union Objective 2 structural funding.
[edit] Banff and Buchan district
Banff and Buchan was formerly a local government district in the Grampian region, created in 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. It combined, from the former county of Banff, a Banff area (including the burgh of Banff), the burghs of Aberchirder, Macduff and Portsoy, and Aberchirder and Fordyce areas, and, from the former county of Aberdeen, the burghs of Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Rosehearty and Turriff, and Deer Turriff and Cruden areas. (The rest of the county of Banff became part of the Moray district of the region).
In 1996, the Banff and Buchan district was merged into the Aberdeenshire unitary council area, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994.
[edit] Parliamentary constituencies
The name is also used for the Banff and Buchan (Westminster) constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (at Westminster), and for the Banff and Buchan (Holyrood) constituency of the Scottish Parliament (at Holyrood). The boundaries of the two constituencies have differed since 2005.
The Banff and Buchan area is known as a strongly pro Scottish independence. Both constituencies have Scottish National Party representation. The Westminster constituency is represented by Member of Parliament (MP) Alex Salmond, leader of the party, and the Holyrood constituency is represented by Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Stewart Stevenson.
