Final recommendations on the future electoral arrangements for Blaby in Leicestershire Report to The Electoral Commission June 2002 BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND © Crown Copyright 2002 Applications for reproduction should be made to: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Copyright Unit. The mapping in this report is reproduced from OS mapping by The Electoral Commission with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, © Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD 03114G. This report is printed on recycled paper. Report number 301. 2 BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND CONTENTS page WHAT IS THE BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND? 5 SUMMARY 7 1 INTRODUCTION 11 2 CURRENT ELECTORAL ARRANGEMENTS 13 3 DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS 17 4 RESPONSES TO CONSULTATION 19 5 ANALYSIS AND FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS 21 6 WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 40 APPENDIX A Final Recommendations for Blaby: Detailed Mapping 42 A large map illustrating the proposed ward boundaries for Blaby Town and Narborough is inserted inside the back cover of this report. BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND 3 4 BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND WHAT IS THE BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND? The Boundary Committee for England is a committee of the Electoral Commission, an independent body set up by Parliament under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The functions of the Local Government Commission for England were transferred to the Electoral Commission and its Boundary Committee on 1 April 2002 by the Local Government Commission for England (Transfer of Functions) Order 2001 (SI 2001 No 3692). The Order also transferred to the Electoral Commission the functions of the Secretary of State in relation to taking decisions on recommendations for changes to local authority electoral arrangements and implementing them. Members of the Committee are: Pamela Gordon (Chair) Professor Michael Clarke CBE Kru Desai Robin Gray Joan Jones Ann M Kelly Professor Colin Mellors Archie Gall (Director) We are required by law to review the electoral arrangements of every principal local authority in England. Our aim is to ensure that the number of electors represented by each councillor in an area is as nearly as possible the same, taking into account local circumstances. We can recommend changes to ward boundaries, the number of councillors and ward names. We can also recommend changes to the electoral arrangements of parish and town councils. This report sets out our final recommendations on the electoral arrangements for the district of Blaby in Leicestershire. BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND 5 6 BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND SUMMARY The Local Government Commission for England (LGCE) began a review of Blaby’s electoral arrangements on 12 June 2001. It published its draft recommendations for electoral arrangements on 15 January 2002, after which it undertook an eight-week period of consultation. As a consequence of the transfer of functions referred to earlier, it falls to us, the Boundary Committee for England, to complete the work of the LGCE and submit final recommendations to the Electoral Commission. • This report summarises the representations received by the LGCE during consultation on its draft recommendations, and contains our final recommendations to the Electoral Commission. We found that the existing arrangements provide unequal representation of electors in Blaby: • in 16 of the 21 wards the number of electors represented by each councillor varies by more than 10 per cent from the average for the district and eight wards vary by more than 20 per cent; • by 2006 this situation is expected to worsen, with the number of electors per councillor forecast to vary by more than 10 per cent from the average in 17 wards and by more than 20 per cent in nine wards. Our main final recommendations for future electoral arrangements (see Tables 1 and 2 and paragraphs (77-78) are that: • Blaby District Council should have 39 councillors, as at present; • there should be 18 wards, instead of 21 as at present; • the boundaries of 19 of the existing wards should be modified, resulting in a net reduction of three, and two wards should retain their existing boundaries. The purpose of these proposals is to ensure that, in future, each district councillor represents approximately the same number of electors, bearing in mind local circumstances. • In 17 of the proposed 18 wards the number of electors per councillor would vary by no more than 10 per cent from the district average. • This improved level of electoral equality is forecast to continue, with the number of electors per councillor in all wards, expected to vary by no more than 10 per cent from the average for the district in 2006. Recommendations are also made for changes to parish and town council electoral arrangements which provide for: • revised warding arrangements and the redistribution of councillors for the parishes of Blaby, Braunstone, Enderby, Glenfields, Kirby Muxloe, Narborough and Whetstone. BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND 7 All further correspondence on these final recommendations and the matters discussed in this report should be addressed to the Electoral Commission, to arrive no later than 18 July 2002: The Secretary The Electoral Commission Trevelyan House Great Peter Street London SW1P 2HW 8 BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND Table 1: Final Recommendations: Summary Ward name Number of Constituent areas Map reference councillors 1 Blaby South 2 part of Blaby parish (the proposed Blaby Map 2 and Map South parish ward) A5 2 Cosby with South 2 Cosby parish; part of Whetstone parish (the Map 2 and Map Whetstone proposed South Whetstone parish ward) A4 3 Countesthorpe 3 Unchanged – the parishes of Countesthorpe Map 2 and Map and Kilby A1 4 Croft Hill 1 the parishes of Croft, Elmesthorpe, and Map A2 Potters Marston 5 Ellis 2 part of Glenfields parish (the proposed Ellis Map 2 and Map parish ward) A2 6 Enderby & St 2 Lubbesthorpe parish; part of Enderby parish Map 2 and the John’s (the proposed Enderby and St John’s parish large map wards) 7 Fairestone 2 part of Glenfields parish (the proposed Faire Map 2 and Map and Stone parish ward A2 8 Forest 3 Leicester Forest East parish; part of Kirby Map 2 and Map Muxloe parish (the proposed Hinckley parish A3 ward) 9 Glen Parva & 3 Glen Parva parish; part of Blaby parish (the Map 2 and Map Blaby North proposed Blaby North parish ward) A5 10 Millfield 1 part of Braunstone parish (the proposed Map 2 and the Millfield parish ward) large map 11 Muxloe 2 part of Kirby Muxloe parish (the proposed Map 2 Kirby parish ward) 12 Narborough & 2 part of Narborough parish (the proposed Map 2, Map A2 Littlethorpe Narborough & Littlethorpe parish ward) and the large map 13 Normanton 1 Unchanged – the parishes of Huncote, Map 2 Leicester Forest West and Thurlaston 14 North Whetstone 2 part of Whetstone parish (the proposed North Map 2 and Map Whetstone parish ward) A4 15 Pastures 2 part of Enderby parish (the proposed West Map 2 and the Enderby parish ward); part of Narborough large map parish (the proposed Pastures parish ward) 16 Ravenhurst & 3 part of Braunstone parish (the proposed Map 2 and the Fosse Fosse and Ravenhurst parish wards) large map 17 Stanton 3 the parishes of Aston Flamville, Sapcote, Map 2 Sharnford, Stoney Stanton and Wigston Parva 18 Winstanley 3 part of Braunstone parish (the proposed Large Map and Winstanley parish ward) Map 2 Notes: 1 The whole district is parished. 2 The wards on the above table are illustrated on Map 2 and Maps A1-A5 in Appendix A. BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND 9 Table 2: Final Recommendations for Blaby Ward name Number Electorate Number of Variance Electorate Number of Variance of (2001) electors from (2006) electors from councillors per average per average councillor % councillor % 1 Blaby South 2 3,775 1,888 4 3,762 1,881 2 2 Cosby with South 2 3,565 1,783 -1 3,556 1778 -4 Whetstone 3 Countesthorpe 3 5,463 1,821 1 5,445 1,815 -2 4 Croft Hill 1 1,764 1,764 -2 1,762 1,762 -4 5 Ellis 2 3,979 1,990 10 4,022 2,011 9 6 Enderby & St 2 3,281 1,641 -9 3,467 1,734 -6 John’s 7 Fairestone 2 3,871 1,936 7 3,927 1,964 8 8 Forest 3 5,302 1,767 -2 5,260 1,753 -5 9 Glen Parva & 3 5,282 1,761 -3 5,519 1,840 0 Blaby North 10 Millfield 1 1,908 1,908 6 1,892 1,892 3 11 Muxloe 2 3,461 1,731 -4 3,481 1,741 -6 12 Narborough & 2 3,944 1,972 9 3,926 1,963 6 Littlethorpe 13 Normanton 1 1,988 1,988 10 1,988 1,988 8 14 North Whetstone 2 3,822 1,911 6 3,787 1,894 3 15 Pastures 2 3,764 1,882 4 3,744 1,872 2 16 Ravenhurst & 3 5,475 1,825 1 5,435 1,863 1 Fosse 17 Stanton & 3 5,776 1,925 6 5,934 1,978 7 Flamville 18 Winstanley 3 4,104 1,368 -24 5,017 1,672 -9 Totals 39 70,524 - - 71,919 - - Averages - - 1,808 - - 1,844 - Source: Electorate figures are based on information provided by Blaby District Council. Note: The ‘variance from average’ column shows by how far, in percentage terms, the number of electors per councillor varies from the average for the district. The minus symbol (-) denotes a lower than average number of electors. Figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number. 10 BOUNDARY COMMITTEE FOR ENGLAND 1 INTRODUCTION 1 This report contains our final recommendations on the electoral arrangements for the district of Blaby in Leicestershire.