Biggar's Borderline case

THE residents in Biggar want to move their town. Not Biggar in Saskatchewan (motto: "New York is big, but this is Biggar"). No, we are talking about the fine town of Biggar in Lanarkshire, which has stood on the banks of the Biggar Burn since at least the Romans built the first bridge. To remind visitors of this long heritage, the Biggar Gas Works Museum is open to visitors every day from June to September.

Yet some of Biggar’s citizens are no longer happy being in Lanarkshire, with its links to the Labour heartlands of the urban west. They want to move Biggar to the Borders, with its rural charm and lower insurance costs. But how to do so without an expensive rebuilding programme?

A local Tory MSP, David Mundell, thinks he has the answer. Rather than move Biggar, why not just change postcodes? Mr Mundell has written to his constituents suggesting that they hold a referendum to alter their postcode from Lanarkshire to Dumfries and Galloway - a move legally possible since 2002.

Some will scent snobbery; some crafty politics. But no matter where it sits, Biggar will remain its charming self, and worthy of a visit.