Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Council will fight bid to cut Perth councillor numbers

Ian Miller, Perth and Kinross Council leader.
Ian Miller, Perth and Kinross Council leader.

A move to cut one of Perth’s councillors will be fiercely contested by the local authority.

They have rejected a recommendation by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland to reduce the number of representatives in Perth city north and will write to Scottish Ministers advising them of their position.

A meeting of the full council endorsed the stance that “given the projected population increase for Perth and Kinross over the coming years, the council feels that there is insufficient basis for a reduction in councillor numbers”.

 

Council leader Ian Miller spoke of his incredulity when the recommendation was first made.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that my first reaction to the boundary commission proposals was utter astonishment,” he said. “The proposals for Perth and Kinross came as a shock and complete surprise. I’m sure that was the same for everyone in this room.

“At no time during the months of consultation was there any mention of the possibility of reducing the Perth north ward to three members.

“All of the consultation centred around their proposals to alter the Kinross ward and therefore all of the council response was focussed on that. Now we have this bombshell dropped on us that no one had even considered as a possibility.

“If the commission had any credibility they have completely lost it now. I have to ask why they even bothered to consult us. I have never encountered anything so outrageous in over 21 years in local government.

“This idea, which has come completely from left field, is incomprehensible as we were asked to comment on a completely different proposal.

“To my mind the only possible way out of this mess will be to retain the number of councillors in Perth and Kinross at 41 and thereby recognise the fast growing population of our area.

“I recommend to council that we totally reject this utterly absurd and ill-considered idea and revert to the status quo.”

Mr Miller also congratulated the members from Kinross on the success of their campaign to stop the division of Kinross-shire which was the original proposal from the commission.