User:Laurel Bush/Workshop I

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Inverness

Inverness (Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Nis) is a city in Scotland, ranked by the Scottish Executive as comparable to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen.[1] The latter cities, however, are local government areas, defined as such by primary legislation[2] and Inverness is, at best, a vaguely defined area within the Highland local government area.

[edit] City Status

In 2001 city status was granted to the Town of Inverness, and letters patent were taken into the possession of the Highland Council by the convener of the Inverness area committee.[3] These letters patent, which were sealed in March 2001 and are held by Inverness Museum and Art Gallery,[4] create a city of Inverness, but do not refer to anywhere with defined boundaries, except that Town of Inverness may be taken as a reference to the burgh of Inverness. As a local government area the burgh was abolished 26 years earlier, in 1975, and so was the county of Inverness for which the burgh was the county town. Nor do they refer to the former district or to the royal burgh.

The Scottish Executive ranks Inverness as a city alongside Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Stirling.[5] Unlike many other such cities however, that are local government areas, defined as such by primary legislation[6], there is no formally defined boundary to Inverness, which is within the Highland local government area.

The Highland area was created as a two-tier local government region in 1975, and became a unitary local government area in 1996. The region consisted of eight districts, of which one was called Inverness. The districts were all merged into the unitary area. As the new local government authority, the Highland Council then adopted the areas of the districts as council management areas. The management areas were abolished this year, 2007, in favour of three new corporate management areas, and the council has defined a large part of the Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate area as the Inverness city management area.[7] This council-defined city area includes Loch Ness and numerous towns and villages apart from the former burgh of Inverness.


  1. ^ Building Better Cities: Delivering Growth and Opportunities Scottish Executive website offers statistics about Inverness as a city within the Highland region. However, unlike other cities recognised by the Scottish Executive, Inverness does not have statutory boundaries, and the webpage does not specify any sense of boundaries. Region is a term by which the Highland Council often refers to the Highland council area
  2. ^ Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website
  3. ^ Helen Liddell joins Inverness celebrations as Scotland’s Millennium City, Scotland Office press release 19 Mar 2001
  4. ^ Ordnance Survey grid reference for Inverness Museum and Art Gallery: NH666451
  5. ^ Building Better Cities: Delivering Growth and Opportunities Scottish Executive website
  6. ^ Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website
  7. ^ Key Decisions Taken on Council Post 2007, Highland Council news release, 15 December 2006, includes a list of wards within the Inverness management area

[edit] External refs

Key Decisions Taken on Council Post 2007, Highland Council news release, 15 December 2006

Caithness Arts website

Third Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements, The Highland Council Area, Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland Report to the Secretary of State for Scotland

[edit] Local government in Scotland

[edit] Scottish local government elections, 2003

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 1 May 2003 Scottish council election results
Parties Votes Votes % +/- Wards Net
Gain/Loss
Labour 611,843 32.6 -3.7% 509 -42
Scottish National Party 451,660 24.1 -4.6% 181 -23
Conservative 282,895 15.1 +1.6% 122 +14
Liberal Democrats 272,057 14.5 +1.9% 175 +18
Independent 189,749 10.1 +3.0% 230 +39
Other 67,533 3.6 +2.0% 4 -6
Total 1,875,737 1,222

[edit] Election results, 2007

Follow the introduction of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 local elections are held using the single transferable vote, with this taking place for the first time in 2007. This change in voting system saw all but five councils end up with no one party in control. Labour retained control of the City of Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, while Orkney, Shetland and Na h-Eileanan Siar continue to be controlled by Independent councillors. The total numbers of councillors elected per party were as follows[1] :

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 3 May 2007 Scottish council election results
Parties Councillors Net
Gain/Loss
Scottish National Party 363 +182
Labour 348 -161
Liberal Democrats 166 -9
Conservative 143 +21
Scottish Green 8 +8
Scottish Socialist 1 -1
Solidarity 1 +1
Independent & Other 192 -42
Total 1,222

[edit] Council control

The 32 unitary authorities are controlled as follows. The figures incorporate the results from the 2007 local government election, plus gains and losses from subsequent local by-elections, and party defections.

Council area Political control [2] Lab SNP LD Con Grn Oth Total
City of Aberdeen LD-SNP 10 12 15 5 0 1 43
Aberdeenshire LD-Con 0 22 24 14 0 8 68
Angus Con-LD-Lab-Oth 2 13 3 5 0 6 29
Argyll and Bute Oth-SNP 0 10 7 3 0 16 36
Clackmannanshire Lab (minority) 8 7 1 1 0 1 18
Dumfries and Galloway Con-LD (minority) 14 10 3 18 0 2 47
City of Dundee Lab-LD (minority) 10 13 2 3 0 1 29
East Ayrshire SNP (minority) 14 14 0 3 0 1 32
East Dunbartonshire Con-Lab (minority) 6 8 3 5 0 2 24
East Lothian SNP-LD 7 7 6 2 0 1 23
East Renfrewshire Lab-SNP-Oth-LD 7 3 1 7 0 2 20
City of Edinburgh LD-SNP 15 12 17 11 3 0 58
Na h-Eileanan Siar Oth 2 4 0 0 0 25 31
Falkirk Lab-Oth-Con (minority) 14 13 0 2 0 3 32
Fife SNP-LD 24 23 21 5 0 5 78
City of Glasgow Lab 45 22 5 1 5 1 79
Highland Oth-SNP 7 17 22 0 0 34 80
Inverclyde Lab (minority) 9 5 4 1 0 1 20
Midlothian Lab (minority) 9 6 3 0 0 0 18
Moray Oth-Con 2 9 0 3 0 12 26
North Ayrshire Lab (minority) 12 8 2 3 0 5 30
North Lanarkshire Lab 40 23 1 1 0 5 70
Orkney Oth 0 0 0 0 0 21 21
Perth and Kinross SNP-LD 3 18 8 12 0 0 41
Renfrewshire SNP-LD 17 17 4 2 0 0 40
Scottish Borders Oth-Con-LD 0 6 10 11 0 7 34
Shetland Oth 0 0 0 0 0 22 22
South Ayrshire Con (minority) 9 8 0 12 0 1 30
South Lanarkshire Lab (minority) 30 24 2 8 0 3 67
Stirling Lab (minority) 8 7 3 4 0 0 22
West Dunbartonshire SNP-Oth 10 9 0 0 0 3 22
West Lothian SNP-Oth 14 13 0 1 0 4 32
TOTAL - 348 363 166 143 8 194 1222

[edit] Previous Council control

The 32 unitary authorities were controlled as follows, before the 2007 elections. The figures incorporate the results from the 2003 local government election, plus gains and losses from subsequent local by-elections, and party defections.

Council area Political control Labour Party (Lab) Scottish National Party (SNP) Liberal Democrats (LD) Conservative Party (Con) Others (Oth)
City of Aberdeen LD-Con 14 6 20 3 0
Aberdeenshire LD-Oth 0 18 28 11 11
Angus SNP 1 17 3 2 6
Argyll and Bute Oth 0 3 8 3 22
Clackmannanshire Lab 10 7 0 1 0
Dumfries and Galloway Lab (minority) 15 5 5 11 11
City of Dundee Lab-LD (minority) 10 11 2 5 1
East Ayrshire Lab 23 8 0 1 0
East Dunbartonshire LD 9 0 12 3 0
East Lothian Lab 17 1 1 4 0
East Renfrewshire Lab-LD 8 0 3 7 2
City of Edinburgh Lab 30 1 14 13 0
Na h-Eileanan Siar Oth 4 3 0 0 24
Falkirk SNP-Oth 12 11 0 2 7
Fife Lab (minority) 35 13 23 2 5
City of Glasgow Lab 69 4 3 1 2
Highland Oth 8 6 13 0 53
Inverclyde LD 6 0 13 0 1
Midlothian Lab 14 1 3 0 0
Moray Oth 5 3 1 1 16
North Ayrshire Lab 20 3 0 5 2
North Lanarkshire Lab 54 13 0 0 3
Orkney Oth 0 0 0 0 21
Perth and Kinross SNP-LD-oth 5 15 9 10 2
Renfrewshire Lab 21 14 3 1 0
Scottish Borders Oth-Con 0 2 8 11 13
Shetland Oth 0 0 5 0 17
South Ayrshire Con (control dependent on casting vote of the Provost) 14 0 0 15 1
South Lanarkshire Lab 49 9 2 4 3
Stirling Lab 11 1 0 10 0
West Dunbartonshire Lab 16 3 0 0 3
West Lothian Lab 18 11 0 1 2
TOTAL - 495 (15 councils, plus 2 shared control) 190 (1 council, plus 2 shared control) 179 (2 councils, plus 5 shared control) 126 (1 council, plus 2 shared control) 232(6 councils, plus 4 shared control)

[edit] Caithness

[edit] Watsonian vice-county

Caithness, with the boundaries of the local government county, is one of the Watsonian vice-counties, subdivisions of Britain and Ireland which are used largely for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering.

The vice-counties were introduced in Hewett Cottrell Watson who first used them in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852. He refined the system somewhat in later volumes, but the vice-counties remain unchanged by subsequent local government reorganisations, allowing historical and modern data to be more accurately compared. They provide a stable basis for recording using similarly-sized units, and, although grid-based reporting has grown in popularity, they remain a standard in the vast majority of ecological surveys, allowing data collected over long periods of time to be compared easily.

[edit] Local media

[edit] Newspapers

The John O'Groat Journal and The Caithness Courier are weekly newspapers published by Scottish Provincial Press Limited[3] trading as North of Scotland Newspapers[4] and using offices in Union Street, Wick. (Public reception, however, is via Cliff Road.)

News coverage tends to concentrate on the former counties of Caithness and Sutherland. The John O'Groat Journal is normally published on Fridays and The Caithness Courier is normally published on Wednesdays.

Historically, they have been independent newspapers, with the Groat as a Wick-centred paper and the Courier as a Thurso-centred paper. Even now, the Groat is archived in the public library in Wick, while the Couriier is similarly archived in the library in Thurso.

[edit] Websites

Various community organisations, including Caithness Arts[5] and Castletown Heritage Society[6] maintain their own websites.

Caithness.org[7] represents itself as a community website. It is privately owned and controlled. Its creator, owner and controller is also a Highland councillor, one of three councillors representing the Wick ward of the council area.

  1. ^ Scottish councils A-Z, BBC News, May 8 2007
  2. ^ http://www.cosla.gov.uk/political_control.asp?leftId=10001C391-10766746&rightId=10001C391-11002366&hybrid=false
  3. ^ Scottish Provincial Press Limited website
  4. ^ North of Scotland Newspapers website
  5. ^ Caithness Arts website
  6. ^ Castletown Heritage Society
  7. ^ Caithness.org website

[edit] Re Subdivisions of Scotland

Subdivisions of Scotland represent many different systems of subdivision. They have evolved during centuries of history, creating a complex pattern of overlapping areas and a potentially confusing pattern of placename usage. The same placename may refer to several different areas with overlapping boundaries.

Systems of subdivision include:

System Notes
Unitary council areas The unitary council areas of Scotland are the 32 local government areas that have covered the whole of Scotland since 1996.
Island council areas are now counted as three of the 32 unitary council areas.
Regions and districts
and island council areas		 The regions and districts were used as local government areas from 1975 to 1996.
They did not cover the whole of Scotland, however.
There were also island council areas, which may be seen as regions of just one district and, in retrospect, as early examples of Scottish unitary council areas.
Counties County councils were created in 1889 and abolished in 1975.
From 1894 to 1930 there were also parish councils, parishes being subdivisions of the county.
Counties and parishes have histories which long predate county and parish councils.
Burgh councils pre-date the county council system and survived until the system of regions and districts plus island council areas was created in 1975.
Scottish Westminster constituencies There have been Scottish constituencies of the Parliament of Great Britain since 1708.
They became constituencis of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1801.
Boundaries and names have been much changed since 1801.
Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions The Scottish Parliament and its constituencies and electoral regions were created in 1999.
The constituencies were created to be identical to United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, but the latter were reformed in 2005, while the Scottish Parliament constituencies remained unchanged.
Lieutenancy areas

[edit] See also

[edit] Re Council areas of Scotland

Planned as a rewrite of material now in Subdivisions of Scotland.

[edit] Links