This article is from page 14 of the 2008-02-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE county councillors will at- tempt to reunite communities and parishes as they consider the bound- ary division for the next local elec- tion — just 16 months away.
The members as well as the general public are invited to make submis- sions to the Boundary Committee set up by the Minister for the Environ- ment and Local Government John Gormley and charged with reviewing local electoral areas.
This review will take into account population changes since the last re-
view in 1998.
The committee will then report to the minister by June 20 so that he can make any changes he deems fit.
At last evenings meeting of Clare County Council, councillors present- ed a few concerns about the possible redivision of the areas they will be canvassing in a matter of months.
Cllr Martin Conway (FG) said he would hope that all communities and parishes would remain united within the same area.
“T think it was always regrettable that Kilmaley was split among three areas, and are not therefore getting
proper services.”
The north Clare councillor also maintained that the review process should have begun after the General Election.
Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) argued that geography as well as population should be taken into ac- count when deciding on dividing the county.
“Cognisance has to be taken of geography. I wouldn’t like to think demographics would supersede geo- graphic area.”
According to the Boundary Com- mission the committee charged with
looking at the area divisions must take “due account of the desirability of preserving natural communities or the hinterlands of population centres, and where possible, of aligning local electoral area boundaries with Dail constituency boundaries”.
“The committees are asked to as- sume no change in present numbers of elected members at overall local authority level. Within individual electoral areas as recommended by the committees, the number of coun- cillors should not be less than four or more than seven provided that in very exceptional circumstances
three seat local electoral areas may be recommended where otherwise the geographic size of the area would be disproportionately large.”
Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) told the meeting “there is a bias against three seaters and I don’t know why unless there is a political reason.”
The County Manager Alex Flem- ing said he was not going to have any position in the process.
“Tt is really an area I should not be involved in,” he told the councillors.
He will however present the popu- lation break down of the areas to the councillors next week.