How constituency boundaries could change for 2026 Holyrood election

Edinburgh Evening News

Revised boundary proposals published 16-04-24 for Edinburgh and the Lothians at the next Scottish Parliament elections in 2026

Transcript

00:00 They're redrawing the boundaries of Scotland's constituencies, ready for the next Scottish

00:04 Parliament elections in 2026. The aim is to keep the size of constituencies as equal as

00:10 possible so every vote carries the same weight. But as well as the numbers, they try to take

00:16 into account natural communities and local identities, and that's where the problem often

00:23 comes.

00:26 Proposals published last year included taking Portobello out of Edinburgh Eastern and putting

00:31 it into Midlothian North and Musselburgh. That would have meant one seat straddling

00:37 three different council areas. Another proposed seat would have linked areas like Cramond

00:43 and South Queensferry in Edinburgh, with Winchburgh, Broxburn and Linlithgow in West Lothian.

00:53 Now Boundaries Scotland has gone back to the drawing board and published a completely new

00:57 set of proposals which they believe addresses the concerns raised. Under the plans, Edinburgh

01:03 would have six and a half seats, more than it's ever had before.

01:08 Edinburgh Central includes the Newtown but not Stockbridge, and loses Gorgie, but Morningside

01:14 is split between Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh Southern.

01:20 Edinburgh South Western runs from Gorgie to beyond Balerno. A new Edinburgh North Western

01:26 largely replaces the current Edinburgh Western, covering Kerstorfen, Raffel, Kirkliston, Cramond

01:33 and South Queensferry.

01:35 Edinburgh Northern stretches from Silvermouse to Newhaven, and inland to Blackhall and Deane

01:41 Village.

01:43 The new Edinburgh North Eastern takes in Leith, Cregantinny, Abbey Hill, Meadowbank and Duddingston,

01:49 but does not include Leith in the name of the seat, which is likely to prove controversial.

01:56 And the new Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Trenent, runs from Portobello to Trenent,

02:02 but does not include Preston Pans.

02:06 There's a separate Lothian Eastern constituency for the rest of East Lothian. Midlothian North

02:11 is no longer linked to Musselburgh, and Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale remains largely

02:17 as it is just now.

02:20 In West Lothian there's a new Bathgate constituency. Llanlithgow is linked with Falkirk South,

02:27 and Livingston is linked with Brieff Valley.

02:30 Lots of changes and I mean really helpful consultation responses, both during the consultation

02:38 period and in the local inquiry as well. So extensive have been the changes that we've

02:44 actually redrawn the way we group constituencies together, because we felt that the initial

02:50 groupings we had, although useful for helping us to start to find initial constituency boundaries,

02:56 were restricting us unduly. And so we've created entirely new groupings. We've created a single

03:02 grouping of the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian, for example, and we feel that gives

03:07 us more flexibility in terms of drawing new constituency boundaries. It also means we're

03:12 avoiding a constituency that represents three local authority areas at the same time. And

03:19 it means we've got changes to all of the constituencies within that grouping and at Edinburgh's eastern

03:24 and western borders.

03:26 And what about that missing name, Leith?

03:28 Yes, well, there's a number of things to say to that. First of all, these are just proposals.

03:33 So if people feel strongly about Leith being in the name of a constituency, then I would

03:38 absolutely encourage them to respond to the consultation period while it's open. In terms

03:43 of our reasoning behind that, the Westminster Review that was finished a little while ago,

03:49 it has a constituency of Edinburgh North and Leith. And so we have a policy across the

03:54 two commissions to not use identical constituency names for both Westminster constituencies

04:00 and Holyrood constituencies. That's why you get things like Edinburgh South and Westminster

04:04 and Edinburgh Southern for Holyrood. So that's why we've moved away from Edinburgh North

04:10 and Leith. But if people feel strongly about Leith being in the name, then absolutely write

04:14 in and tell us what you'd like to see.

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