Lincolnshire
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Local Government Boundary Commission For England Report No. 396 LOCAL GOVER>:tfElT BOUKD.OT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND CHAIRMAN Sir Nicholas Morrison KGB DEPUTY CHAIRMAN Mr J M Rankin G Lady Bowden .Kr J T Brockbank Mr R R Thornton CBS DL Mr D P Harrison Professor G E Cherry To the Rt Hon William Whitelaw, CH MC MP Secretary of State for the Home Department PROPOSALS FOR THE FUTURE ELECTORAL ARKANGiiflENTS TOR THE COUNTY OF LINCOLNSHIRE 1. The last Order under Section 51 of the Local Government Act 1972 in relation to electoral arrangements for districts in the county of Lincolnshire was made on 6 November 1979. As required by Section 63 and Schedule 9 of the Act we have now reviewed the electoral arrangements for that county, using the procedures we had set out in our Report No 6* 2. We informed the Lincolnshire County Council in a consultation letter dated 20 November 1979 that we proposed to conduct the review, and sent copies of the letter to all local authorities and parish meetings in the county, to the MFs representing the constituencies concerned, to the headquarters of the main political parties and to the editors both of local newspapers circulating in the county and of the local government press* Notices in the local press announced the start of the review and invited comments from members of the public and from interested bodies* 3* On 16 January 1980 the County Council submitted to us a draft scheme in which they suggested 75 electoral divisions for the county, each returning one member in accordance with Section 6(2)(a) of the Act. 4. We considered this scheme together with the views expressed by local interests* On 24 April 1980 we issued draft proposals which we sent to all those who had received our consultation letter, or commented on the County Council's draft scheme* Notices were inserted in the local press announcing that the draft proposals had been issued and could be inspected at the County Council's offices* 5» We based our draft proposals on the County Council's draft scheme, though we made certain modifications designed to improve the balance between divisions or districts. Several of these modifications were derived from local comments made about the draft scheme* 6. The modifications we made were as follows: (a) Boston Borough . V'e replaced the 7 electoral divisions proposed by the County Council in their draft scheme by the 7 division arrangement which the County Council had considered at one stage (with division names as assigned by ourselves), but modified so as to transfer the Hilldyke parish ward of Flshtoft district ward from Wyberton electoral division to Coastal electoral division. (b) East Llndsev District We made adjustments to 5 of the electoral divisions proposed by the County Council to produce a pattern of electoral divisions fully compatible with the new district wards. (c) North Kesteven District We made a modification to the boundary between the County Council's proposed Bassingham Rural and Cliff divisions. We appreciated however^that this modification did not meet the objections of some parish councils and therefore invited the County Council to consider whether there was any means of doing this by an adjustment to our draft proposals. (d) South Kesteven District We thought that an additional division was warranted in tnis district and replaced the 13 divisions proposed by the County Council by H divisions formed by the re-arrangement of the wards in the district. We renamed the County Council's proposed Stamford Bast division Stamford Borth. (e) West Lindaev District We omitted the prefix 'Rural1 from the County Council's proposed division names of ^Market Rasen', 'Stow1 and 'Welton' and "District1 from their proposed 'Caistor1 division. (f) Division names generally To simplify the names we omitted district prefixes to division names wherever possible throughout the draft proposals. 7. We received comments in response to our draft proposals from the County Council, five district councils,.sixteen parish .councils, one local political organisation and two individuals. A list of those who wrote to us is given at Appendix 1 to this Report. 8. Lincolnshire County Council supported our draft proposals for four districts, subject to certain suggestions about names* They put forward suggestions for alternative arrangements, as well as some different division names, in respect of the other three* 9* The comments we received can be summarised as follows:* (a) Boston Borough Lincolnshire County Council preferred their own draft scheme to our draft proposals and also put forward alternative names for 5 divisions. Boston Borough Council have expressed a preference for the County Council's draft scheme arrangements, flshtoft Parish Council objected to the inclusion of the Hilldyke parish ward in the Coastal electoral division* Kirton Parish Council thought that Holland Fen district ward should not be included in the Fenside electoral division* AlgarkLrk Parish Council, Fosdyke Parish Council, Sutterton Parish Council and Wigtoft Parish Council suggested an alternative name for the Kirton electoral division. An individual suggested alternative names for all the divisions in the borough. (b) East Idndaey District East Lindsey District Council wrote in support of our draft proposals. Lincolnshire County Council put forward alternative names for the electoral divisions of Chapel St Leonards and Tattershall* Coniugsby Pariah Council also suggested an alternative name for the Tattershall electoral division. Tetney Parish Council expressed concern at the geographical size of the Louth Rural North electoral division. An individual suggested the transfer of Edlington parish from the Woodhall Spa and Wragby electoral division to the Horncastle and Tetford division. (c) Lincoln City Lincolnshire County Council requested that the 'Lincoln1 prefix be added to the division names of Abbey, Castle, Moorland and Park. (d) Morth Kesteven District In the light of local representational which they received, Lincolnshire County Council put forward an alternative arrangement for the electoral divisions of Branston and Metheringham, Cliff,and North East Kesteven* Branston and Mere Parish Council, Canwick Local Council, Heighington Parish Council and Washingborough Parish Council all expressed support for the County Council's alternative arrangements for these three electoral divisions* North Kesteven District Council expressed support for their own alternative schxae for the district. Waddington .. Parish gave their full support to the Cliff electoral division included in our draft proposals. (e) South Holland District Lincolnshire County Council put forward alternative names for the four Spalding electoral divisions. Cowbit Parish Council disagreed with the combination of district wards which made up Spalding East electoral division* (f) South Keateven District South Kesteven District Council accepted the draft proposals* Lincolnshire County Council supported our proposals subject to the inclusion of the parishes of Ufflngton and Tallington in our proposed Stamford North division on the grounds that the transfer would serve to balance numerically the 2 divisions of Stamford and reduce the size of the proposed Grimsthorpe division; they also put forward alternative names for the Bourne East and Bourne West electoral divisions* Market Deeping Parish Council objected to the combination of Market and West Deepingfand Deeping St James district wards to form a single electoral division. Rutland and Stamford Constituency Labour Party reiterated earlier views disagreeing with the electoral divisions in the South Grantham area, (g) West Lindsey District Lincolnshire County Council put forward alternative names for the electoral divisions of Caistor, Market Rasen, Stow and Welton* West Lindaey District Council reiterated their objection to the splitting of Witham district ward. They wished to see Sudbrooke parish transferred from the Welton electoral division to the Bardney and Cherry Willingham division. Stow Parish Council and Burial Authority supported the use of the name of Stow for the electoral division in which the parish was comprised. 10. When we came to reassess our draft proposals we took account of all the comments we had received and came to the following conclusions:- (a) Boston Borough We gave careful consideration to the views expressed by the County Council and Boston Borough Council that we should revert to the arrangements in the County Council's draft scheme on grounds of local wishes. We re-examined the draft scheme arrangements and found the balance between the divisions of the Borough particularly uneven, with three of the seven having electorate totals,which deviated more than 20% from the county average. Our draft proposals offered a much more even standard of representation and despite the local support for the County Council's draft scheme, we decided in view.of the provisions of Schedule 11 of the. Local Government Act 1972, ..that on balance 'it would be right for. us to ' confirm" them. We considered Fishtoft Parish Council's'suggested adjustment to our Wyberton and Coastal divisions, but we saw no sufficient justification for accepting this, particularly in view of the more unequal standard of represent- ation between the two divisions which it would have produced. We also decided not to adopt Kirton Parish Council's suggested adjustment to our Fenside division because it involved the transfer of a district ward and no indication was given where this ward should be transferred to. We decided