Local Government Boundary Commission For England Report No. 114 LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY C OMl'vlI SSI UN FOR ENGLAND REPORT NO. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND CHAIRMAN Sir Edmund Compton, GCB,KB£. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN Mr J M Rankin,QC. MEMBERS The Countess Of Albemarle, DBE. Mr T C Benfield. Professor Michael Chisholm* Sir Andrew WheaUey,CBE. Mr P B Young, CBE. To the Rt H0n Roy Jenkins, MP Secretary of State for the Home Department PROPOSALS FOR REVISED ELECTORAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DISTRICT OF STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS IN THE COUNTY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 1. We, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, having carried out our initial.review of the electoral arrangements for the District of Staffordshire Moorlands in accordance with the requirements .of section 6? of, and Schedule 9 to, the Local Government Act 1972, present our proposals for the future electoral arrangements for that district. 2. In accordance with the procedure laid down in section 6o(l) and (2) of the 1972 Act, notice was given on 3 June 197^ that we were to undertake this review. This was incorporated in a consultation letter addressed to the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, copies of which were circulated to the Staffordshire County Council, Parish Councils and Parish Meetings in the district, the Member of Parliament for the constituency concerned and the headquarters of the main political parties. Copies were also sent to the editors of local newspapers circulating in the area and of the local government press. Notices inserted in the local press announced the start of the review and invited comments from members of the public and from any interested bodies. 3. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council were invited to prepare a draft scheme of representation for our consideration. In doing so, they were asked to observe the rules laid down in Schedule 11 to the Local Government Act 1972 and the guidelines which we set out in our Report No 6 about the proposed size of the council .and the proposed number of councillors for each ward. They were asked also 'to take into account any views expressed to them following their consultation with local interests. We therefore asked thnt they should publishdetails of their provisional proposals about a month before they submitted their draft scheme to us, thus allowing an opportunity for local comment. 1 *t. The Council have not passed a resolution under section ^(^}(^ of the Local Government Act 1972. The provisions of section ?(6) will therefore apply and the elections of all district councillors will be held simultaneously. 5. On 16 December 197^ the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council presented their draft scheme of representation. The Council proposed to divide the area of the district into 29 wards each returning 1, 2 or 3 councillors to form a Council of 5& members. 6. Following the publication by the District Council of. their draft scheme we received a letter from Kingsley Parish Council requesting two councillors to represent the proposed district ward comprising that parish. There were also comments from a district councillor suggesting that the parish of Oakamoor should be included in the proposed Kingsley ward which should then be represented by two councillors instead of one, and from Oakamoor Parish Council who supported the councillor's submission. 7. The District Council sent us copies of representations which they had received from Biddulph and Leek Town Councils when the draft scheme was being prepared. In both cases the District Council had agreed to the suggestions which had been submitted and incorporated them in the draft scheme. 8. We studied the draft scheme and noted that, in terms of equality of representation it was somewhat uneven. We considered whether there were modifications which could be made to secure a more even standard. We noted that the five proposed wards making up the parish of Biddulph would be over- represented by at least one member. We decided to reduce by one the number of district councillors representing East ward of the parish where the electorate, as forecast by the District Council in five years' time, was insufficient to warrant the allocation of three councillors as the district council had proposed. 9. We noted that the parish of Consall forms a detached part of the present ward comprising that parish and the Werrington Windmill ward of the parish of Caverswall and that the District Council proposed to retain the ward unchanged. In order to avoid a ward made up of areas which ' aj-enot contiguous, and also to achieve a more even standard of representation in some of the neighbouring wards, we decided to propose the regrouping of a number of parishes or parish wards in the area into three new district wards. These were the Endon and Stanley wards comprising the parish of Endon arid Stanley returning 2 councillors; the Wetley Rocks ward comprising the parishes of Bagnall and Consall and the Wetley Hocks ward of the parish of Cheddleton- returning 2 councillors; and the Werrington ward comprising the Werrington Windmill and Ash Hall wards of the parish of Caverswall returning 3 councillors. 10. We decided there would be some advantage, in terms of equality of representation, if the parish of Cotton were to be transferred to the proposed ward comprising the parishes Waterhouses and Blore with Swinscoe and we resolved to modify the draft scheme accordingly. 11. We considered the proposals from the Kinp;sley and Oakamoor parish councils and the district councillor concerning the proposed Kingeley ward and decided that the proposed arrangements would be improved by the transfer of the parish of Oakamoor from the proposed Cheadle North East ward to the proposed Kingsley ward and by the allocation of an additional member to the latter ward. 12. We considered the names proposed by the District Council and noted that in a number of instances they had proposed that the name of a district ward should include the names of all the parishes included within it. The resulting names were cumbersome and we decided to propose their abbreviation using the name of the parish in the proposed ward with the largest electorate. We decided also that the four proposed district wards in Leek which the District Council proposed to name Leek North 1, Leek North 2, Leek South 1 and Leek South 2, should be known as Leek North East, Leek North West, Leek South East and Leek South West respectively. 13. Subject to the changes referred to in paragraphs 8 to 12 above we decided that the District Council's draft scheme provided a reasonable basis for the district in compliance with the rules in Schedule 11 to the 1972 Act and our guidelines and we formulated our draft proposals accordingly. 14. On 12 June 1975 we issued our draft proposals and these were sent to all who had received our consultation letter or had commented on the Council's draft scheme. The Council were asked to make these draft proposals and the accompanying naps, which defined the proposed ward boundaries, available for inspection at their main offices. Representations on our draft proposals were invited from those to whom they were circulated and,, by public notices, from other members of the public and interested bodies. We asked that any comments should reach us by 8 August 1975- 15» In response to our draft proposals we received representations from the District Council and from a number of other sources objecting to the proposals to include the parish of Bagnall in the proposed Wetley Rocks ward and the parish of Cotton in the proposed Waterhouses ward. It was said that the parish of Bagnall should be warded with the parish of Endon and Stanley and that the parish of Cotton should be included in the proposed Alton ward. 16. Comments were also received objecting to the proposed allocation of only two councillors to the proposed Lonn;nor and Warslow wards and to the proposal to reduce from three to two the number of councillors assigned to the proposed Biddulph East ward. 17. In view of these comments, we decided that we needed further information to enable us to reach a conclusion. Therefore, in accordance with section 6. of the 1972 Act and at our request, you appointed Mr W Liddell Hann as an Assistant Commissioner to hold a local meeting and to report to us. 18. The Assistant Commissioner held a meeting at the Town Hall, Leek on 7 October 19V5- A copy (without enclosures) of his report to us of the meeting is attached at Schedule 1 to this report. 19. ^n the light of the discussion at the meeting and of his inspection of those areas concerned the Assistant Commissioner recommended that the draft proposals be modified so as to transfer the parish of Bagnall from the proposed Wetley Rocks ward to the proposed Endon and Stanley ward. In consequence it was recommended that the proposed Wetley Rocks ward should be represented by one councillor (instead of two) and that the proposed Endon and Stanley ward should be represented by three councillors (instead of two). He also recommended that the draft proposals be amended so as to leave the parish of Cotton in the same ward as the parishes of Alton and Farley. 20. We considered again our draft proposals in the light of the comments which we had received and of the Assistant Commissioner's Report. We concluded that the alterations recommended by the Assistant Commissioner should be adopted and, subject to these amendments, we decided that our draft proposals should be confirmed as our final proposals. 21. Details of these final proposals are set out in Schedules 2 and 3 to this report.