A public consultation has begun into controversial proposals to change council ward boundaries.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland has started seeking feedback on proposed electoral wards for each local authority as part of the Fifth Reviews of Electoral Arrangements.
Plans to redraw local boundaries, shifting thousands of residents in the West Ferry from the Ferry ward into the East End, have been slammed by local community leaders but were approved by Dundee City Council.
Commission chairman Ronnie Hinds said the public’s view will be important.
He added: “Consultation is a vital part of our work and having completed our consultation with councils, and amended a number of our proposals in the light of these, we now want to hear from local residents, community groups and organisations.
“We have a statutory obligation to conduct reviews and we are required to ensure that the number of electors per councillor in each ward in a council area is as nearly as may be the same.
“But subject to that we also need to take account of local ties and the public are best placed to tell us about these.
“We look forward to positive engagement with communities across Scotland over the next 12 weeks and have today launched our consultation portal, which will allow people to see our proposals and submit their comments to us online, including suggested revisions to the maps setting out ward boundaries.
“Paper copies of our proposals are available at display points across council areas,” Mr Hinds added.
The proposals contain the recommendations for councillor numbers in each of Scotland’s 32 council areas and the number, boundaries and names of wards.
Under the proposals for councillor numbers, Dundee would gain two extra elected representatives.
However, Angus and Perth and Kinross would lose one each while the number of councillors in Fife would drop by three.
When reviewing electoral arrangements the commission will take account of factors including local ties that would be broken by making a particular boundary.
It will also preserve 120 existing wards and make the number of councillors more evenly spread across electorates.