Talk:Derry City Council

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What is the latest on removing the 'London' from the city's name? It's proving very difficult to find this out, and why it didn't happen the night that nationalists were allowed to be a majority on the city council. What is the obstacle?

I'm not sure exactly, but I think the NI Assembly has to apply to get its charter changed... and there is no NI Assembly right now. Theres also the possibility that the City Council don't really care all that much. --Kiand 21:46, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Historical names of the council

Can someone clear up a question. I believe that up to 1973 the coucil was a county borough council (so strictly not administratively part of the county) with tightly drawn boundaries. In 1973 it became a district council with extended boundaries(and the administrative county abolished). In 1984 it changed its name to "Derry City Council" but remained a district council. But what precisely were its names before 1973 and from 1973 to 1984? "Londonderry County Borough Council" or "Londonderry City Council"? Based on Schedule 1 of [1] I had thought the former but a recent edit makes me doubt it. --Henrygb 17:38, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know before the local government reforms, the area was Londonderry County Borough and the council's official title was Londonderry County Borough Council (or Londonderry Corporation less formally). (The council had actually been abolished before 1973 and replaced with a development corporation as one of Terence O'Neill's attempted reforms.) After 1973, the council was a district council, so the County Borough title was not relevant (the area of the County Borough was much smaller). The County Borough may still exist as a legal entity, in the same way as counties still exist legally in Northern Ireland, but it was no longer the unit electing the council. So while the council was a district council it used the style of City. --PaddyMatthews 17:44, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 1973 election

[2] is fairly clear about the votes and seats in the 1973 election:

Party            Votes     %     Seats
SDLP             11,008 (32.4%) 10 Councillors
Nationalist       2,850  (8.4%)  3 Councillors
Republican Clubs  2,091  (6.2%)  1 Councillor
Alliance          4,930 (14.5%)  4 Councillors
United Loyalists 12,483 (36.8%)  9 Councillors

To me this is clearly a majority of seats (14/27) for nationalists and republicans combined compared with a majority of votes (51.3%) for loyalists and Alliance combined. --Henrygb 17:38, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

While the number of votes and seats in the 1973 election are clear enough, the wording that "unionists (who had an electoral pact in that year) and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland won a majority of votes between them" carries the implication that the Alliance Party was allied - informally - with the unionists, and I don't think that was the case. (The probable reason why nationalists took a majority of seats might be that enough Alliance voters gave them second preferences ahead of unionists.) It might be more accurate to say that neither nationalists nor unionists won a majority of votes without lumping in Alliance along with one side or the other. --Paddy Matthews 17:54, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Your last point is correct - but the nationalists etc. did win a majority of the seats with a minority of the vote. There is no evidence to suggest that Alliance->nationalist transfers had much impact. Following the link above suggests the immediate cause: the electoral areas with the lowest quotas (C and D) were those where nationalists dominated. There are two indirect causes: C and D had lower % turnouts, which is not a problem; and D (almost totally nat/rep suggesting relatively few nationalist-inclined Alliance voters) had too many councillors while E and perhaps B had too few, which if the demographics had been reversed given the previous history would have led to accusations of gerrymandering. --Henrygb 11:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)