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| The Boundary Committee has completed its statutory consultation on the proposals put forward by the council following its Periodic Electoral Review and has approved almost all of the council’s recommendations. Rutland County Council completed its statutory Periodic Electoral Review, to ensure electoral equality across all wards, earlier this year. 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 that various ward boundary changes and that the number of councillors should increase from 20 to 26. Peter Golden, Cabinet portfolio holder for Social Services and Housing and member of the Electoral Review Working Group, said: “The Boundary Committee has accepted in its final recommendations almost all of the county council’s proposals. The only change by the Boundary Committee from what the council suggested is that Barleythorpe will not remain with Langham but be included with North West Oakham ward. This is despite the clear wish of the residents of Barleythorpe who wanted to maintain their links with Langham. In effect the Boundary Committee has accepted 99% of the council’s proposals. “We proposed that the number of councillors is increased to 26 for a number of reasons. One of the barriers to a wide range of people standing for the council has been the workload. If there are more councillors to share the work, the burden on each councillor will be less and this should encourage more people in employment and with families to come forward to represent the community. And even with the increase to 26 councillors, Rutland County Council will still have fewer members than neighbouring district councils, which have a narrower range of responsibilities.” Copies of the committee’s report, along with corresponding maps, are available for public inspection on the Boundary Committee’s website, www.boundarycommittee.org.uk. They will also be available shortly in all Rutland libraries, in the customer services area at the council offices in Oakham and on the county’s website, www.rutnet.co.uk. The Boundary Committee’s final recommendations will now be submitted to the Electoral Commission, which will decide whether to accept, modify or reject the final recommendations. The changes resulting from the review will be implemented for the May 2003 elections. Rutland County Council’s submission to the Boundary Committee was based upon extensive consultation with residents and parish councils including six public meetings. Under the proposals, 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 whose boundaries are not changed in this 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 Wilkinson pwilkinson@rutland.gov.uk 01572 758 328 | Display start: Friday 25 October 2002 | |
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