I presume that the new council areas are the colour-coded things, not the areas with white lines and names (which are the existing council areas) ?
Yes, the names and white lines represent the current state of play. I actually hadn't realised that there was an actual decision on what the areas of the 11 councils would be.
The UUP and Alliance oppose the plan outright (one UUP member has claimed that Belfast has been gifted to nationalists under this plan) which seems to represent a compromise between the SF wish for 7 councils and the DUP's wanted 15.
As for the map apparently proposed - I would have rathered had they went somewhat closer to the Assembly/Westminster constituencies (where possible) - not that I find anything particularly abhorrent about the map.
