sign in sign up
<<
Home , Stroud, Stroud District

Stroud District Council

Electoral Review of District Council: Ward Patterns Proposed amendments to the Local Government Boundary Commission for ’s draft recommendations for Council.

March 2015

Introduction The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) commenced an electoral review for Stroud District in the Autumn of 2013. Following consultation on the Council size the LGBCE agreed with the Council’s proposal that a council size of 51 would be appropriate. LGBCE then sought submissions by the 3 November 2014 on warding patterns to assist them in re-drawing the District ward boundaries on a council size of 51 Councillors and the results would be published in February 2015. A cross party working group was formed by the Council to propose the future warding pattern of the Stroud District as part of this consultation period. LGBCE proposed warding pattern In February 2015 LGBCE developed and published warding arrangements for the Stroud District. This proposal would result in 51 councillors representing twelve single-member, six two-member and nine three-member wards across the district. ’s response to the proposed warding pattern The cross party working group formed once again to comment on these draft recommendations and on the whole were satisfied with the recommendations which were largely based on the working group’s original proposal. Due to this, this report only comments on the wards in the working group’s proposal which have been altered by the LGBCE. • Changes made to the northern boundary. The working group has no specific comments regarding this proposal. • Changes made to the southern boundary. The working group has no specific comments regarding this proposal. • Berkeley Vale The proposal of this three member ward for Berkeley Vale is undesirable as it is felt that the geographical size of this ward is too large and the result of this being that it would be difficult for Councillors to manage given the number of parishes within this ward and the huge area they would need to cover. It is therefore proposed that the boundary originally suggested by the working group should be retained and a two-member ward of Berkeley Vale and a single- member ward named Hinton and be adopted.

• Severn The working group does not have any strong objections to this proposed two- member ward; however, it is proposed that an alternative name of Severn Vale be adopted. • Wotton-under-Edge The change to the boundary between Wotton-Under-Edge and Kingswood was adopted in the draft recommendations as a result of the Council’s proposal. However, this has resulted in the Town Council of Wotton-Under-Edge to be warded with one twelve member ward and one single member ward. The working group is concerned about these proposed wards as it is felt that it would be more difficult for elected members to accurately represent their communities given that over half of the electorate in the single member ward is made up of residents in a nursing home. This may also hinder the democratic process as it could prove difficult to find someone to stand as a Town Councillor for this ward. The draft recommendations for this ward are therefore not supported at District or Parish level and the working group proposes that the original boundary between Wotton-Under-Edge and Kingswood is maintained. Whilst recognising that this would leave Kingswood on a variance of -13% the working group believe that this is a better option than splitting the Town Council into a twelve member and a single member ward.