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The Review Officer () Local Government Boundary Commission for Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Layden House 76-86 Turnmill Street of Rushcliffe Constituency London EC1M 5LG

30th May, 2012

Dear Sir/ Madam, Local Government Boundary Review: Rushcliffe Borough Council.

Introduction. Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch of the Labour Party covers the area in Rushcliffe, of Cotgrave, Crop- well Bishop, , , & Wiverton, Wiverton, , Hickling, Kinoul- ton, and Upper Broughton.

Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party is the largest and most active political party in this area and its members are represented on the Borough Council, Parish Council’s, School Governors and Community groups.. It has an active community base of 210 registered Labour supporters.

These are the present electoral arrangements for wards in this area on Rushcliffe Borough Council.

Parish Borough Ward Number of Councillors

Cotgrave Cotgrave 3

Cropwell Bishop Wiverton Ward 2 Cropwell Butler Colston Bassett Tithby & Wiverton Wiverton

Hickling Neville Ward 1 Kinoulton Owthorpe Upper Broughton

Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party supports the proposal that there should be 45 council- lors on Rushcliffe Borough Council, as opposed to the existing arrangement of 50 councillors. Having 45 councillors equates a councillor—electorate ratio of 2,078..

In giving consideration to our proposals we have sought to build a democratic foundation of un- derstanding and knowledge between the councillor and their electorate, and more importantly giv- ing the electorate a closer involvement with their elected representative, thereby, improving de- mocratic accountability.

This can be best achieved by creating electoral wards of two members and in some cases by one member. We do not support the concept of three member wards.

Contd... 2

The present electoral arrangement, has all of West Bridgford warded into two member wards, as it does with Bingham with two two member wards, and Radcliffe on Trent with two wards each with two councillors.

However, the present arrangement also added some confusion with the concept of two member wards, when the villages of Cotgrave, East Leake and Ruddington had single wards each with three councillors.

It was also a similar situation in Keyworth where it was split into two wards: South Keyworth with three members and North Keyworth with one member.

Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party does not cover the areas of East Leake, Ruddington and Keyworth, so we would not presume to know what is best for those areas. However, we do represent the area of Cotgrave and we strongly reject any proposal that Cotgrave should be a sin- gle ward of three members.

This branch Labour Party is of the view that two member wards would be advantageous in that there is likely to be a councillor to represent constituents if the other councillor is on holiday or sick etc.

Under the present arrangement for elections to Rushcliffe Borough Council there are 28 wards, with 14 two member wards, 10 one member wards, and 4 three member wards, giving the total number of seats as 50. We recognise and support the proposal to reduce the number of seats down to 45, and we have looked at reducing the number of councillors by one in the areas that we cover. This would appear to be justified given the councillor—electorate ratio.

Cotgrave Parish Area. Cotgrave is a growing community with a projected electorate of 6,850 by 2018 as opposed to the electorate Dec 2011 of 5,596.

Cotgrave is split into two electoral wards for the purpose of Cotgrave Town Council, Ashlea Ward and Manor Ward. Ashlea Ward has a present electorate of 4,484 and a projected electorate of the same 4,484 (no growth). Manor Ward on the other hand has a present electorate of 1,456, growing to 2,356 by 2018.

The major growth in Manor Ward is because the former colliery site has planning permission for 470 new houses. However, the site is not physically joined to Cotgrave (Manor Ward) and is set aprox 3/4 of a mile away from the outskirts of Manor Ward housing on Hollygate Lane (see map attached).

There are two polling stations in Cotgrave, one for Ashlea Ward at the Leisure Centre and one for Manor Ward at the Methodist Church hall..

Ashlea Ward was primarily the part of Cotgrave which housed miners from the local colliery and still remains the area where many of the former miners and their extended families live. Ashlea has a higher proportion of Social housing than most wards in Rushcliffe and has a higher level of families on benefits than elsewhere.

Contd…. 3

Manor Ward on the other hand is generally the more prosperous of the two areas and there is little social housing except for some at Lawrence Close and the Broadmere area. Housing in Manor Ward is generally of a higher rateable value than the houses in Ashlea Ward.

As explained earlier, Manor Ward is the area of Cotgrave projected to see major growth because of the new development. Although the development site is set aside from Manor Ward , it is much further away from Ashlea Ward. The new development fits within Manor Ward for the purpose of elections to Cotgrave Town Council.

Given the new development, it makes more sense for a single councillor to make this their own. Allowing for a much closer relationship with the new community and more importantly for the new community to “get to know” their councillor. Both these points would be difficult if Cotgrave was a single ward with three councillors.

For many years now, Cotgrave has been divided into two wards for the purpose of elections to the Town Council and the electorate have become familiar with this warding arrangement , they also know which Town Councillors represent them. This is not the case with the present Borough Council Ward where a great deal of confusion still exists

Prior to the last reorganisation of the warding on Rushcliffe Borough Council there was two wards in Cotgrave and they were represented by three members and a single member. This changed be- cause of the councillor—electorate ratio. It could change again given the new councillor— electorate ratio, and the new development. It should also be noted that when Cotgrave was previously warded for Rushcliffe Council, the ma- jority of wards in Rushcliffe had three members.

Conclusion. In conclusion, Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party believes that the electoral warding of Rushcliffe Borough Council should consist of two member wards/ and single member wards. Three member wards would be electorally too large , diverse and inconsistent with the other wards in Rushcliffe.

For the area covered by Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party we favour:

Having two wards in Cotgrave: Ashlea Ward and Manor Ward (both based on the electoral ward- ing for the Town Council).. Manor Ward would would be extended to include the new develop- ment on the former colliery site. Ashlea Ward with an estimated electorate of 4,484 voters at 2018 would have two members Manor Ward with an estimated electorate of 2,356 voters at 2018 would have one member.

It is noted that the proposed Ashlea Ward would have a variance of +7%, however the proposed Manor ward would have a variance of +13%. It should also be noted, however that 13% equates to just 50 voters and we feel that it would be beneficial to accept the variance rather than tinker with the established warding that already exists for Town Council elections. (Rushcliffe BC and Cot- grave TC elections are usually held on the same day).

As for the present Borough Wards of Wiverton and Neville we have looked at splitting these up to create two single wards with one member each, but this would cause too much of a geographical mish mash. Instead we have opted in favour of merging both Wiverton and Neville into a single ward which we feel should be named “Cropwell and the Vale” to reflect the combined area.

Contd. 4

The new ward would have a total of 4648 voters in 2018 and would be represented by two mem- bers. Whilst there is a geographical spread, it is likely that councillors would reflect the whole area and give easy coverage to the new ward. The variance, however, would be +11.84%, but again this should be accepted in areas where wards are a combination of multiple villages.

Our proposal would bring about a reduction in the number of councillors for this part of Rushcliffe by one.

We set out below a table showing our proposal for this part of Rushcliffe.

Ward No of councillors Electorate Variance + or -

Cotgrave: Ashlea 2 4,484 + 7%

Cotgrave: Manor 1 2,356 + 13%

Cropwell & the Vale * 2 4,648 + 11.84%

* Note We have merged the former wards of Wiverton & Neville into a new ward represented by two members. We have give it the name of “Cropwell and the Vale” to reflect the geography of the area. Note: We used estimated voter numbers provided by RBC for 2018.

I trust you will give serious consideration to the proposals put forward by Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Mick Chewings on behalf of Cotgrave & Cropwell Branch Labour Party.