Final Recommendations on the Future Electoral Arrangements for South Staffordshire
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Final recommendations on the future electoral arrangements for South Staffordshire Report to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions October 2000 LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND This report sets out the Commission’s final recommendations on the electoral arrangements for the district of South Staffordshire. Members of the Commission are: Professor Malcolm Grant (Chairman) Professor Michael Clarke CBE (Deputy Chairman) Peter Brokenshire Kru Desai Pamela Gordon Robin Gray Robert Hughes CBE Barbara Stephens (Chief Executive) © Crown Copyright 2000 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 Local Government Commission for England 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 no: 192 ii LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND CONTENTS page LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE v SUMMARY vii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 CURRENT ELECTORAL ARRANGEMENTS 5 3 DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS 9 4 RESPONSES TO CONSULTATION 11 5 ANALYSIS AND FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS 13 6 NEXT STEPS 35 APPENDICES A Final Recommendations for South Staffordshire: Detailed Mapping 37 B Draft Recommendations for South Staffordshire (May 2000) 45 A large map illustrating the proposed ward boundaries for the Penkridge area is inserted inside the back cover of this report. LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND iii iv LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND Local Government Commission for England 10 October 2000 Dear Secretary of State On 28 September 1999 the Commission began a periodic electoral review of South Staffordshire under the Local Government Act 1992. We published our draft recommendations in May 2000 and undertook an eight-week period of consultation. We have now prepared our final recommendations in the light of the consultation. We have substantially confirmed our draft recommendations, although some modifications have been made (see paragraph 91) in the light of further evidence. This report sets out our final recommendations for changes to electoral arrangements in South Staffordshire. We recommend that South Staffordshire District Council should be served by 49 councillors representing 25 wards, and that changes should be made to ward boundaries in order to improve electoral equality, having regard to the statutory criteria. We recommend that whole-council elections should continue to take place every four years. The Local Government Act 2000 contains provisions relating to changes to local authority electoral arrangements. However, until such time as Orders are made implementing those arrangements we are obliged to conduct our work in accordance with current legislation, and to continue our current approach to periodic electoral reviews. I would like to thank members and officers of the District Council and other local people who have contributed to the review. Their co-operation and assistance have been very much appreciated by Commissioners and staff. Yours sincerely PROFESSOR MALCOLM GRANT Chairman LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND v vi LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND SUMMARY The Commission began a review of South Staffordshire on 28 September 1999. We published our draft recommendations for electoral arrangements on 9 May 2000, after which we undertook an eight-week period of consultation. • This report summarises the representations we received during consultation on our draft recommendations, and contains our final recommendations to the Secretary of State. We found that the existing electoral arrangements provide unequal representation of electors in South Staffordshire: • in 16 of the 26 wards the number of electors represented by each councillor varies by more than 10 per cent from the average for the district and three wards vary by more than 20 per cent from the average; • by 2004 electoral equality is not expected to improve significantly, with the number of electors per councillor forecast to vary by more than 10 per cent from the average in 14 wards and by more than 20 per cent in three wards. Our main final recommendations for future electoral arrangements (Figures 1 and 2 and paragraphs 91-92) are that: • South Staffordshire District Council should have 49 councillors, one less than at present; • there should be 25 wards, instead of 26 as at present; • the boundaries of 18 of the existing wards should be modified and eight wards should retain their existing boundaries; • whole-council elections should continue to take place every four years. These recommendations seek to ensure that the number of electors represented by each district councillor is as nearly as possible the same, having regard to local circumstances. • In 23 of the proposed 25 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 only two wards, Kinver and Pattingham & Patshull, expected to vary by more than 10 per cent from the average for the district in 2004. LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND vii Recommendations are also made for changes to parish council electoral arrangements which provide for: • revised warding arrangements and the redistribution of councillors for the parishes of Bilbrook, Penkridge, Perton and Wombourne; • revised warding arrangements for the parishes of Cheslyn Hay, Codsall, Kinver and Great Wyrley; • an increase in the number of councillors serving Huntington Parish Council; • a redistribution of councillors for the parish of Lapley, Stretton & Wheaton Aston. All further correspondence on these recommendations and the matters discussed in this report should be addressed to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, who will not make an Order implementing the Commission’s recommendations before 21 November 2000: The Secretary of State Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Local Government Sponsorship Division Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU viii LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND Figure 1: The Commission’s Final Recommendations: Summary Ward name Number of Constituent areas Map councillors reference 1 Bilbrook 2 Bilbrook ward (part – the proposed East and West Maps 2 and parish wards of Bilbrook parish) A4 2 Brewood & Coven 3 Unchanged Brewood & Coven ward (the Map 2 Brewood, Coven and Coven Heath parish wards of Brewood parish) 3 Cheslyn Hay North 2 Cheslyn Hay ward (part – the Littlewood parish Maps 2 and & Saredon ward and Pinfold parish ward (part) of Cheslyn A5 Hay parish); Shareshill ward (part – Saredon parish) 4 Cheslyn Hay South 2 Cheslyn Hay ward (part – the South parish ward Maps 2 and and proposed Pinfold parish ward of Cheslyn Hay A5 parish) 5 Codsall North 2 Unchanged (the North parish ward of Codsall Map 2 parish) 6 Codsall South 2 Codsall South ward (the South parish ward of Maps 2 and Codsall parish); Bilbrook ward (part – the A4 proposed Lane Green parish ward of Bilbrook parish) 7 Essington 2 Unchanged Essington ward (the parish of Map 2 Essington) 8 Featherstone & 2 Featherstone ward (the parishes of Featherstone Map 2 Shareshill and Hilton); Shareshill ward (part – the parish of Shareshill) 9 Great Wyrley 2 Great Landywood ward (part – the proposed Maps 2 and Landywood Landywood parish ward of Great Wyrley parish) A5 10 Great Wyrley 3 Great Wyrley Town ward (the proposed North and Maps 2 and Town Town parish wards of Great Wyrley parish) A5 11 Himley & Swindon 1 Unchanged Swindon ward (the parishes of Map 2 Himley and Swindon) 12 Huntington & 2 Huntington ward (the parish of Huntington); Map 2 Hatherton Shareshill ward (part–the parish of Hatherton) 13 Kinver 3 Unchanged Kinver ward (the parish ward of Maps 2 and Kinver) A6 14 Pattingham & 1 Unchanged Pattingham & Patshull ward (the Map 2 Patshull parish of Pattingham & Patshull) 15 Penkridge North 2 Acton Trussell ward (the parishes of Acton Large map East & Acton Trussell & Bednall, Coppenhall, Dunston and Trussell Teddesley Hay); Penkridge North East ward (the proposed North East parish ward of Penkridge parish) LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ix Ward name Number of Constituent areas Map councillors reference 16 Penkridge South 2 Penkridge South East ward (the proposed South Large map East East parish ward of Penkridge parish) 17 Penkridge West 1 Penkridge West ward (the proposed West parish Large map ward of Penkridge parish) 18 Perton Dippons 1 Perton Dippons ward (part – the proposed Maps 2 and Kingswood &Trescott parish ward of Perton A3 parish) 19 Perton East 1 Perton Dippons ward (part – the proposed Maps 2 and Dippons parish ward of Perton parish) A3 20 Perton Lakeside 3 Perton Central ward (the proposed Lakeside ward Maps 2 and of Perton parish) A3 21 Trysull & Seisdon 1 Unchanged Trysull & Seisdon ward (the parishes Map 2 of Bobbington, Enville and Trysull & Seisdon) 22 Wheaton Aston, 2 Unchanged Bishopswood & Lapley ward (the Map 2 Bishopswood & parishes of Blymhill & Weston-Under-Lizard and Lapley Lapley, Stretton & Wheaton Aston, and the Bishopswood parish ward of Brewood parish) 23 Wombourne North 3 Lower Penn ward (the parish of Lower Penn); Map 2 & Lower Penn Wombourne North ward (the North parish