The future electoral set up for local wards in Orkney has been laid out by Boundaries Scotland.

The proposals are 21 councillors in six wards, comprising three wards each returning 3-members and three wards each returning 4-members as follows:

Ward No.	Ward Name	Cllrs	Electorate (Dec 17)	Current Variation from Electoral Parity (%)1	Forecast Electorate	Forecast Variation from Electoral Parity (%)2
1	Kirkwall East	4	3,661	12.8	3,644	12.6
2	Kirkwall West and Orphir	4	3,415	5.2	3,452	6.7
3	Stromness and South Isles	3	2,147	-11.8	2,140	-11.8
4	West Mainland	4	3,521	8.5	3,492	7.9
5	East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray	3	2,496	2.5	2,489	2.6
6	North Isles	3	1,798	-26.1	1,771	-27.0
		21	17,038		16,988

This would mean OIC having the same number of councillors as now with no boundary changes for : North Isles; Stromness and South Isles; and West Mainland.

The boundary between Kirkwall East ward and Kirkwall West and Orphir ward is to be amended by Kirkwall harbour to create a more easily identifiable ward boundary and the Kirkwall East ward boundary is to be extended southwards to better reflect local ties by placing Kirkwall airport and neighbouring local communities within a Kirkwall ward.

If you don’t know who your councillor is in Orkney you can click on this link: Multi Member Wards. It involves a lot of clicking.

The next local government elections take place on Thursday 5th of May 2022.