THE Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland has submitted its recommendations on councillor numbers and wards for each of Scotland's 32 council areas to Scottish Ministers.

And these could, if accepted, have an affect on the make-up of the Cowdenbeath Area Committee which controls decision making in this area.

These recommendations arise from the 5th Reviews of Local Government Electoral Arrangements which began in February 2014.

The recommendations provide for 351 wards and 1219 councillors across Scotland, an overall decrease of two wards and four councillors relative to existing arrangements.

And one of the wards which is recommended to go is the Lochs, one of teh three which makes up Cowdenbeath Area Committee.

Under the recommendations, representation of the electorate within council areas will be more evenly shared between councillors and across Scotland there will be greater equity in electoral representation.

Ronnie Hinds, Chair of the Commission, said: "We have submitted to Scottish Ministers our recommendations for electoral arrangements which we believe are in the interests of effective and convenient local government across Scotland.

"These recommendations set out the number of councillors for each council area and the boundaries of the wards they will represent.

"We are grateful to councils and to the public who responded to our consultations over the last two years. Their input has been invaluable in shaping our proposals and while we must take account of our obligations under the legislation and consider the interests of the whole council area, we have been able to take on board many of the views expressed.

"The legislation which governs our reviews places equality of representation at the heart of what we do and we have delivered a set of recommendations that significantly improves electoral parity across Scotland and so provides for fairer local democracy and more effective local government."

So the recommendations suggest that the Cowdenbeath Area Committee set-up should lose one councillor with the Lochs being divided up.

One seat would be lost and the councillor for the Benarty area would join the Lochgelly and Cardenden ward while the Kelty councillor would join the Cowdenbeath ward.

It would leave the Area Committee with eight members instead of the nine as at present.

The current Area Committee was concerned about the proposals as it was felt that the make up of the committee would be undermined by the loss of one member.

The Lochs ward currently covers the communities of Benarty and Kelty and the current councillors representing it are Ann Bain, Willie Clarke and Alex Campbell.