BOUNDARY CHANGES IN FORCE FOR MAY ELECTIONS

Published:Tuesday 25 March 2003

The parish and county elections on Thursday 1 May will be the first ones held under the new ward boundary system approved in October 2002. Within the new system Rutland is divided into 16 wards, each containing one to three councillors. A leaflet explaining the new ward boundaries and how to obtain a postal or proxy vote, was enclosed with council tax information, recently sent to all households. Further copies of the leaflet can be obtained from Rutland libraries or from Rutland County Council¡¦s electoral registration officer. Full details can also be viewed in the Boundary Committee for England's report and corresponding maps, 'Future Electoral Arrangements for Rutland', available in all Rutland libraries, the council offices and on the Boundary Committee's website, www.boundarycommittee.org.uk A Periodic Electoral Review was undertaken in2002 to ensure electoral equality across all wards. In addition to ensuring all wards have around the same number of voters, the review also required the council to examine and justify the number of councillors it has. From this review, the council recommended various ward boundary changes and the number of councillors should increase from 20 to 26. Under the new system Oakham will be represented by a total of eight councillors (up from five) elected from four wards rather than the existing two. Uppingham will have three county councillors, in place of two currently. Uppingham is the only ward in Rutland where the boundaries have not been changed in the re-arrangement. The ward will continue to include the two parishes of Uppingham and Beaumont Chase. The rural areas of the county will be represented by a total of fifteen Councillors elected from eleven wards. The Boundary Committee for England was established on 1 April 2002 and is a statutory committee of the Electoral Commission. The Committee's principal role is to undertake periodic electoral reviews (PERs) which were previously undertaken by the Local Government Commission for England. The Local Government Commission for England (LGCE) began a review of Rutland's electoral arrangements on 16 October 2001. The Boundary Committee for England (BCFE) published its draft recommendations for electoral arrangements on 14 May 2002, after which it undertook an eight-week period of consultation. BCFE found the existing arrangements provide unequal representation of electors in Rutland: - in 12 of the 16 wards the number of electors represented by each councillor varies by more than 10% from the average for the district and eight wards vary by more than 20%; - by 2006 this situation is expected to worsen, with the number of electors per councillor forecast to vary by more than 10% from the average in 14 wards and by more than 20% in six wards. The main final recommendations for future electoral arrangements are: - Rutland County Council should have 26 councillors, six more than at present; - there should be 16 wards, the same as at present; - the boundaries of 15 of the existing wards should be modified, with one ward retaining its existing boundaries. The purpose of these proposals is to ensure that, in future, each Rutland councillor represents approximately the same number of electors, bearing in mind local circumstances. - In 13 of the proposed 16 wards the number of electors per councillor would vary by no more than 10% from the district average. - This improved level of electoral equality is forecast to continue, with the number of electors per councillor in all 16 wards expected to vary by no more than 9% from the average for the district by 2006. Recommendations are also made for changes to town council electoral arrangements which provide for: - Revised warding arrangements and the reduction and redistribution of councillors for Oakham Town Council. All further correspondence on these final recommendations and the matters discussed in BCFE's report should be addressed to The Electoral Commission, which will not make an Order implementing them before 13 November 2002:
Author: Penny pwilkinson@rutland.gov.uk 01572 758 328		Display start: Tuesday 25 March 2003