Plans to change council wards which would have seen the Rosneath Peninsula linked with part of Cowal have been dropped.
But the number of councillors representing Helensburgh looks set to be cut instead in a final report by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland.
Proposals to dramatically increase the size of Argyll and Bute Council’s Lomond North ward, which includes the Rosneath Peninsula, Shandon, Rhu, Arrochar, Tarbet, Luss and Ardlui, were greeted with widespread opposition last year.
Councillors said combining that area with places as far afield as Kilmun, Lochgoilhead and Strachur would make it practically impossible for them to do their job effectively.
Instead, the boundary commission is now proposing to cut the number of councillors in the Helensburgh Central from four to three.
That ward is currently represented by four high profile figures – Vivien Dance, Aileen Morton, Gary Mulvaney and James Robb – who will face interesting choices before next year’s council election, if the commission’s proposal is accepted by Scottish ministers.
Lomond North councillor George Freeman said he was ‘delighted’ that the commission had listened to strong arguments against its original plans.
“ This would have created a ward where local knowledge would have been a thing of the past,” he said.
“It would also have seen councillors having to undertake five or six evening trips of approximately 100 miles each month to attend community council and other community meetings.
“The proposals that have now been passed to the Scottish Government will also remove the risk for those living in the current Lomond North Ward that their nearest councillor could be living 50 miles away from them.”
He said though that other local councillors may be unhappy with the proposals to cut councillors representing Helensburgh: “I do not have concerns with this proposal as it ensures fairness in the level of democratic representation across the Helensburgh and Lomond area.
“I am now hopeful that the Scottish Government will accept the recommendations from the Boundary Commission which should come into effect at the council elections in May 2017.”
The review aimed to create ‘electoral parity’ by making each councillor represent a similar number of electors, but this created problems with the island and coastline geography of Argyll – this website argued that last year’s proposals made about as much sense for people on peninsulas as Trip Advisor, while hundreds of people signed petitions in protest.
The number of councillors in Argyll and Bute will be cut from 36 to 33.
The commission’s full report is here: Argyll_Bute_Report
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