Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr S Lambert.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2021.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 2 December 2021 were agreed as a correct record.

Members to declare any interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

Please note: in addition to the attached Annexes, an interactive Ward map is also accessible here

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) had begun a consultation on the second stage of the electoral review of Buckinghamshire Council. The LGBCE was seeking views on a pattern of wards that should apply from the 2025 local election. This followed the previous consultation on ‘council size’ by the LGBCE, which was now minded to recommend a membership of 98 councillors. The consultation ran until 4 April (with Full Council approval scheduled for 27 April). However the Commission would like to see a draft proposal by 4 April. The Electoral Review Working Group were asked to develop a response to the consultation, making a recommendation to the Standards and General Purposes Sub-Committee as to a preferred pattern of wards, which had been arranged for 17 March 2022. Members were informed that they were also welcome to provide comments to the LGBCE individually as well as through the Electoral Review Working Group.

The Principal Governance Officer reported that the LGBCE had issued guidance on ‘How to propose a pattern of wards’ which was attached at Annex 1. There were three criteria  which a proposal must address:-

i)                    Delivering electoral equality for local voters – ensuring that each local councillor represents roughly the same number of electors so that the value of a vote is the same regardless of where a person lives in the local authority area.

ii)                  Reflecting the interests and identities of local communities – establishing electoral arrangements which, as far as possible, maintain local ties and where boundaries were easily identifiable.

iii)                Promoting effective and convenient local government – ensuring that the new wards can be represented effectively by their elected representative(s), allowed the authority to conduct its business effectively; and adequately reflected the electoral cycle of the council.

Information was also provided on the electorate figures and mapping. The LGBCE had published electorate figures for consultees to use in framing a response. This was supplied to them by the Council. To achieve electoral equality, each councillor must represent roughly the same number of electors. The 2021 electorate for Buckinghamshire is 410,789. Based on a council size of 98, this equated to an average electorate per councillor of 4,521.

The ‘electoral variance’ in this context was the extent to which any proposed ward would result in a ratio of +/- 10%: i.e. above or below 4,521 electors per councillor. Annex 2indicated what the electoral variance would be in such a scenario: 7 of the proposed wards would have a variance of either +/- 10%. In such a case, Members would ultimately need to suggest how the wards could be adjusted to achieve an acceptable electoral variance.

The Working Group of the full committee agreed to focus on Buckinghamshire as a whole, rather than become involved in detailed discussions of each individual ward – as there would be further opportunities to address details as part of the next phase of the review.

The LGBCE was invited to deliver briefings to all Buckinghamshire Councillors, and to parish  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Thursday 14 April 2022 at 2.00pm 

Thursday 14 April 2022 at 2pm