Wicklow County Council Boundary Reviews

Annasopra

The public consultation on boundary reviews for County Councils is taking place and closes on January 25th.

It could have significant impact on Wicklow County Council.

It seems likely that the council will increase from 24 seats to 32 and that boundaries might change.

Greystones, Bray, Arklow and Wicklow Town Councils will all be abolished and merge into Wicklow County Council

http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/Voting/News/MainBody,31550,en.htm

http://www.boundarycommittee.ie/

spank_inferno

Interesting to see alright, probably overdue.

(the cynic in me rekons whether there are 24, 32 or 500 councillors we will still have the 1 Eddie Sheehy un-elected, ruling the county.)

Annasopra

Indeed.

Also each area of the County Council will also have a municipal area based around a Town. So it is likely that there will be 5 areas centreing around Bray, Greystones, Arklow, Wicklow and Baltinglass and each of these 5 will have a municipal council

The South and West constituencies could significantly change - Carnew, Shilelagh, Tinahely could be moved into the West

Greystones could change - Newtown could move from Wicklow into Greystones. There will certainly be big changes ahead.

pixbyjohn

spank_inferno wrote: »

Interesting to see alright, probably overdue.

(the cynic in me rekons whether there are 24, 32 or 500 councillors we will still have the 1 Eddie Sheehy un-elected, ruling the county.)

Isn't that what he is paid for, the councillors don't really have any power.

spank_inferno

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Isn't that what he is paid for, the councillors don't really have any power.

It is indeed what he's paid for, all €142,000 per annum.

I know the minister wants to fix local representation numbers and where they represent.
But if it just means more councillors with no powers, I'd rather we had no councillors and we just take a tax credit for the money saved instead

hdowney

Just cos he is paid doesn't mean he does anything in the interest of the people. After all he doesn't represent them, the councillors with no powers do!!!

POTENTIALLY LIBELLOUS COMMENTS REMOVED BY MODERATOR

Huntthe

Councillors have no power ! ? Flood tribunal anyone ! How quickly we forget.

pixbyjohn

Huntthe wrote: »

Councillors have no power ! ? Flood tribunal anyone ! How quickly we forget.

oooops, you are correct

Annasopra

Only 3 weeks left for the public consultation

cllrmcmanus

Just a quick note on this: The policy document, dealing with the reorganisation of local government, has been built around the idea that issues decided at local level default to being made by the elected representatives with certain powers being given to the county manager, whereas under the current system the decision-making defaults to the county manager with a small number being made by the elected representatives.

It will, I hope, make elected representatives more accountable for the decisions made within the council.

Annasopra

Submissions due in By Friday

Annasopra

The public consultation has now closed.
Currently Wicklow is divided into 5 areas with 24 seats plus 4 town councils.

The 4 town councils will be abolished.

The 5 areas could stay the same or they could be reduced to 4 areas with some radical changes - merging a lot of West Wicklow with East Wicklow or possibly South Wicklow might be an option. Taking Enniskerry and Kilmacanogue from the Bray area and putting it into Greystones might be an option. Moving Greystones downwards to take in Newtown might be an option. Moving Arklow area upwards to take in Rathdrum might be an option.

The only certainty at the moment is that there will be local elections in 2014

hdowney

mango salsa wrote: »

The public consultation has now closed.
Currently Wicklow is divided into 5 areas with 24 seats plus 4 town councils.

The 4 town councils will be abolished.

The 5 areas could stay the same or they could be reduced to 4 areas with some radical changes - merging a lot of West Wicklow with East Wicklow or possibly South Wicklow might be an option. Taking Enniskerry and Kilmacanogue from the Bray area and putting it into Greystones might be an option. Moving Greystones downwards to take in Newtown might be an option. Moving Arklow area upwards to take in Rathdrum might be an option.

The only certainty at the moment is that there will be local elections in 2014

Course there will, I'm leaving the country!! Gah.

I dunno quite what I feel about it. Feelings on the jobs done etc aside I am not sure that fiddling with it is actually going to bring about change for the better, infact I fear it will be change for the worst. Particularly for smaller areas who may end up with an even shorter end of the stick than they do now. They may end up under-represented at county level and find themselves lost in the day to day shuffle to get noticed and get things done. I think things are hard enough with the layout we have and changing it may all cause problems.

On the other hand amalgamation MAY actually end up beneficial to the smaller entitys as they may be brought into the system more and get more recognition. Having things under one umbrella may make decision making easier and therefore the allocation of resources smoother etc.

We shall see what we shall see and drat me missing the elections

Annasopra

The report was published

Bray will be 8 seats
Wicklow/Arklow/Greystones and West Wicklow will be 6 seats each

Bray and Greystones have not significantly changed

West wicklow will be an incredibly huge constituency stretching the entire west of the County from Blessington down to Carnew

http://www.boundarycommittee.ie/reports/2013-Report.pdf

Recommendations

The Committee is recommending a configuration that provides for five local electoral areas, with one based in the west of the county and four based around the current town councils of Arklow, Bray, Greystones and Wicklow, and their respective hinterlands.

The Committee is of the view that this arrangement addresses issues of electoral, administrative, community and geographic coherence in County Wicklow, having regard to its terms of reference.

The position of Bray as the most populous town in the county is acknowledged through the allocation of 8 members to its new local electoral area. The area to the south of the current Bray local electoral area close to the town of Roundwood is proposed for the new Wicklow local electoral area which would have 6 members. Roundwood and its immediate hinterland
would therefore be included in the same local electoral area. It is proposed that the town of Rathdrum and its surrounding electoral divisions would move
from the current Wicklow local electoral area into the new Arklow local electoral area to secure an improved balance of population across these two local electoral areas.

The proposed new Greystones local electoral area would retain the same boundaries as the current Greysotnes local electoral area and have 6 members.

A new 6-member local electoral area, titled Baltinglass, is proposed for the west of the county. In making this recommendation, the Committee had regard to the submissions which highlighted the geographic separation of this part of the county by virtue of its location relative to the Wicklow Mountains.

Cerco

From Breaking News :
19/11/2013 - 19:13:24Back to Ireland Home
Plans to abolish town councils have passed their first stage in the Dáil.
TDs voted 75 to 40 to pass the Local Government Bill which merges town councils into their local county councils.
The Bill also clears the way to merge North and South Tipperary, and the city and county councils in Limerick and Waterford.

spank_inferno

Its a shame it wont affect next years local elections.

They have 5 more years of gravy to enjoy.