Much has been made of the fact that the DUP has saved us from the seven super council model that was originally supported by their partners in Sinn Fein. Many DUP letter writers to the Newsletter hale the success of the DUP in stopping the seven model ideal. In fact some people are foolish enough to actually believe that the DUP has flexed it’s muscles and saved the day. The DUP with their partners in SF agreed an 11 Council model. It is utter nonsense to suggest that the DUP did not cave in on the Review of Public Administration and this is further spelt out when one reads the final recommendation report of the Review of Northern Ireland’s Local Government boundaries that has now been issued. Eleven super councils have now been identified and the boundaries established. What actual changes to the SF/DUP agreed structure of 11 Councils have we managed to achieve? Absolutely none. The instructions issued to the Commissioner by the then Environment Minister Arlene Foster and supported by her successor in the DOE Sammy Wilson have been complied with and the 26 District Councils have been merged with little or no alterations into 11. What happened to the DUP support for 15 Councils – it disappeared as they clamped together the 11 council model with their Government co-partners Sinn Fein. The DUP have clearly stated that they want to see the number of elected representatives reduced in the Assembly and Westminster – have they now effectively put in motion the new constituencies for Westminster and the Assembly should the number of seats in Westminster be reduced following the 2010 election to 14? 10 rural constituencies and 4 for the city of Belfast? 108 MLAs’s reduced to 84? Clearly with the greening of the West SF would almost certainly be guaranteed electoral success and presumably prior to the European election the DUP presumed that they would be guaranteed the East? The decision to virtually destroy the entire County of Tyrone, remove the identity of County Fermanagh by joining it with a substantial part of Tyrone and other actions that remove county and rural identities and ignore natural migration patterns to major towns in the region indicate an intense desire by the SF/DUP alliance to gerrymander the province to a pattern of their own making. It is interesting to note that the only concern raised by the DUP in respect of the Strabane/Londonderry formation was the fact that the City would be referred to as ’Derry. Whilst I accept that this is not the correct name of the city I would have thought there would have been more concerns in respect of the people of Newtownstewart and Castlederg who will now have services centred in Londonderry which could have been effectively delivered from Omagh. Tom Buchanan and Allan Bresland the local ’Unionist’ MLA’s seem to be quite content with their joint DUP/SF party line on this carve up that see’s Omagh forced into an unholy alliance with Fermanagh and Strabane virtually disappear, Lord Morrow and Mrs Foster seem content to see Dungannon hived off with Cookstown and Magherafelt, and Ian McCrea seems content to see Cookstown move into an alliance in County Londonderry, I for one and I am sure many others feel that this is a step too far and hope that the electorate remember the creators of this fiasco were the so called Democratic Unionist Party and the responsibility for the destruction of many of our local identities rests with Arlene Foster and Sammy Wilson.’