Talk:Subdivisions of Scotland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
WikiProject Scotland
 Subdivisions of Scotland is within the scope of WikiProject Scotland, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Scotland and Scotland-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
Top This article has been rated as top-importance on the importance scale.

Article Grading:
The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.
WikiProject Scotland To-do:
A summary of this article appears in Scotland.

Contents

[edit] Why this article title?

I'm not quite clear why this article is at this title. Its "bold title" is different (and probably more logical). "Subdivisions" is neither the formal nor the common term for the subject, nor does it describe only these, and no other such. Currently I'd favour a move to council areas of Scotland, or perhaps even merging to local government in Scotland. Alai 01:18, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Subdivisions of Scotland and Local government in Scotland do seem to be different angles on essentially the same subject, and I would tend to support merger of the content of the former into the latter. Perhaps the former could then become an article descibing in summary all the various systems by which Scotland is or has been subdivided, not forgetting Westminster constituencies and Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions. Laurel Bush 14:18, 19 December 2005 (UTC).

[edit] The map

The map shows most of Scotland, except the Shetlands, which are not even depicted in an inset map, as is often done with remote territorial fragments such as islands and exclaves in order to save "empty map space". The same goes for maps of the United Kingdom and England, which sometimes fail to take into account that the Isles of Scilly and of Wight are in England, and not a foreign country like the Man. Perhaps these maps should be altered to reflect this? //Big Adamsky 20:49, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Areas not coinciding with council areas

I am seeng nothing about registration districts and I am wondering what electoral and valuation mean in the context of the artlicle. Laurel Bush 13:43, 27 January 2006 (UTC).

"electoral registration" and council tax/rates property valuation apparently. For example, there is a Lothian Valuation Joint Board. The list appears to be accurate. It looks like the same agencies do the electoral registation? Morwen - Talk 13:46, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Cheers. I wonder who pays the agencies. The local council(s)? Laurel Bush 18:27, 27 January 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Glasgow/Health

Glasgow is listed twice in the health table - under Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire. Perhaps it is split? Or perhaps just erronerous. Morwen - Talk 13:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Unitary Authority"

A newbie (User talk:62.49.29.104) edited this page (and one or two others) yesterday, making the claim that ""Unitary Authority" is not a Scottish designation". I have asked them exactly what they meant by that. But I think I understand what they mean: have a look at these pages:

... here "Hartlepool Unitary Authority" etc is being used as a proper noun: it is actually the official title of the body. This type of usage just does not occur in Scotland, or at least not since the time around the upheaval of 1996. Since then we have settled down to just calling them "Councils", thus:

  • "Highland Council", never "Highland Unitary Authority" (with caps)
  • "Clackmannnanshire Council", never "Clackmannanshire Unitary Authority" (with caps)
  • "Fife Council", never "Fife Unitary Authority" (with caps)

--Mais oui! 14:25, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

  • Mais oui, I saw your comment above about Unitary Authorities and it triggered a streak of curiosity in me. I decided to go dig through the legislation at the Office of Public Sector Information to see where the term crops up. I managed to find a reference for England in Statutory Instrument 1994/867: The Local Government Changes for England Regulations 1994, which defines a unitary authority as "any authority which is the sole principal council for its local government area". However I can't find any equivalent definition for Scotland. The closest reference I can get is a description in the explanatory notes of Statutory Instrument 1995 No. 2766 (S.204): The Local Government (Application of Enactments) (Scotland) (No.2) Order 1995, which says "The 'new local authorities' are the unitary authorities on the Scottish mainland which are due to take over existing local authority functions on 1st April 1996". Unfortunately, this is only included in the explanatory note, so it is technically not part of the legislation. As there is no apparent definition of 'unitary authority' for Scotland, this may be what the user was trying to say (though they should probably have explained their case on a discussion page first). Personally, I don't want to get involved in a discussion over whether a description is valid because it is or is not defined in legislation. I just thought that I would share the results of my curiosity. Road Wizard 17:41, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
Many thanks. The presentation of this term in this article needs some further thought. Indeed, I suspect that the term "unitary authority" should be applied to Scottish local authorities very sparingly and not used as their primary descriptor, which I have seen on quite a lot of Wikipedia articles, especially UK-wide ones (and most certainly the abbreviation "UA" or capitalised "Unitary Authority" should never be used). User:Morwen, and other local govt Wiki experts, may want copied in on this discussion. I will contact her after the Easter break. --Mais oui! 18:43, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
One thing you may wish to consider though before making any changes is that the term 'unitary authority' is in common usage. Doing a quick Google search brings up a very large number of pages that refer to unitary authorities in Scotland. These include pages by both private individuals and government departments. Even Falkirk Council refers to itself as a unitary authority. However, I think I will leave it up to the experts to decide whether a legally defined term, or a term in common usage takes precedence on Wikipedia. Road Wizard 19:45, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meaning

Are council areas counties? Simply south 12:24, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

No. Local government counties were abolished in 1975. Laurel Bush 11:00, 14 March 2007 (UTC).

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/u/b/Talk%7ESubdivisions_of_Scotland_5b67.html"