District Electoral Areas Commissioner (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 2006

Well, the intention is there. They are identifiable if one focuses on the natural settlement of an area. The current ward structure has been the electoral unit which the vast majority of voters are most familiar with. It is a useful mechanism for ensuring proper representation of the rural and urban electorate within a council area. Some statistical measures such as deprivation are commonly presented and broken down at ward level. One of the ways in which they are most useful is in collecting and publishing statistics. We have gone beyond ward areas now to look at very small areas.