Courtesy Herald
Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

THE leader of the Tories on a Scots council has called for an inquiry into local boundary changes, claiming his party may have lost a seat over six years ago as a result.

East Renfrewshire Council's Conservative Group Leader Gordon Wallace said a routine polling station consultation showed 13 properties across two wards had been incorrectly allocated.

The mistakes date back to 2006 when boundaries were changed to accommodate the new multi-member ward system.

Mr Wallace said these houses, across the two wards, may have accounted for around 30 votes and secured his party a seat in the 2007 poll.

The seat was won by the SNP, with successful candidate Alastair Carmichael now the East Renfrewshire Provost. Mr Wallace has alleged that one of the affected households was occupied by an SNP council candidate and his family and that their votes contributed to the Tory defeat.

He said: "Thirty votes may not sound a lot but half of these were in a ward where we lost a council seat to an SNP candidate by eight votes and where we know one of the affected households was occupied by an SNP council candidate and his family.

"This is a travesty for local democracy and gives a new meaning to the term 'every vote counts'. We are on the eve of one of the most historic votes in our nation's history and we have an electoral registration system that has proved sufficiently unstable to produce what is at best a dubious result and at worst the completely wrong result."

East Renfrewshire Council confirmed a mistake was made in the Electoral Registers in 2006, during the changes to ward boundaries that took effect on 1st December in 2006, but said it's "highly unlikely" that the mistake impacted on any election results.

A spokeswoman added: "We have been assured that the error has been rectified and all wards have been re-checked.

"The electoral registration officer has apologised to the council and has written to the households affected and to the ward councillors involved, to make them aware of the situation.

I love the Newspeak they employ, Orwell would approve. Or are they trying to use The Force? I think it only works person to person...

Was there a recount? Seems a very close result.

Anyway, when's the by-election?

I know the house and the people in it and there are five voters all SNP so which ERC spokesperson said it would not affect the election and what qualifies them to say that, Chocolate should not have got in end of.

Only 8 votes why did the Tories not ask for a recount?

Oh 2006? I misread it as the last ones...
Still, it could have made things a lot different.
My family and community might not have suffered as we have.

If Chocolate Teapot did not get in and the tory did can someone tell me how the council makeup would have changed like could they have formed the administration with labour instead of labour and snp, cause I cannot remember that far back?