Agenda item

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Nick Graham, Service Director, Legal and Democratic/ Glenn Watson, Principal Governance Officer.

The Committee received a report on the Buckinghamshire Electoral Review and were asked to make recommendations to Council on the Local Government Boundary Commission’s proposed wards for Buckinghamshire Council. The Electoral Review Working Group had assisted the Committee by recommending certain changes which it believed would achieve a better balance of the statutory criteria. The Committee were asked to adopt these recommendations and commend them to Council on 30 November 2022.

The Commission had specifically invited comments on ten of their proposed wards.  The Working Group was suggesting a change to eight of those. The Group also felt it important to invite all members of the Council to comment on the Commission’s 41 other wards.  Having reviewed the responses, the Group had recommended two further changes, as summarised in Annex 1 and illustrated in Annex 2 of the agenda. 

The Committee were informed that the Working Group had been mindful only to suggest changes where they substantially improved upon the Commission’s own proposal. The consensus of the Group had been to focus on the few issues that would make a significant difference. In most cases, the suggested change actively builds on the Commission’s working assumptions that:

1. Parishes be kept whole where possible
2. Rural wards are not too geographical spread out and diverse
3. Electoral variance is within acceptable limits
4. Urban and rural areas should not be mixed where possible

In one instance, the Working Group had recommended a significant change to the Chiltern Ridges ward the Commission proposed. It was felt that the interests of the parishes were better associated with neighbouring wards. In three cases, the Working Group had recommended that the Commission’s individual wards be merged with another, with one being Newton Longville and Quainton uniting under the name Swanbourne and Rural Villages.  

In other cases, the Group had proposed a modification to the Commission’s proposals in the interests of community identity; either by emphasising importance of keeping parish boundaries whole (as in the case of Iver and Gerrards Cross & Denham and Little Marlow Parish), or where it was felt that certain aspects of the community were more associated with a neighbouring ward (as in the case of Terriers & Amersham Hill and Totteridge & Bowerdean and Penn, Tylers Green & Loudwater and Beaconsfield).

It was noted that the proposals brought forward from the Working Group were sound and respected the outcome the Commission was seeking to achieve while also brining local knowledge and perspective to improve upon the Commission’s proposed pattern of wards.

The Chairman thanked Members of the Committee for their work as part of the

Electoral Review Working Group, and Officers for all their hard work in supporting

Members, the Working Group and the Committee.

It was proposed by Councillor T Broom and seconded by Councillor B Chapple and following a unanimous vote:

RESOLVED:

1)      To adopt the recommendations made by the Electoral Review Working Group, as set out in Annex 1 of the report.

2)      To recommend Council that these should form the Council’s response to the Local Government Boundary Commission’s consultation on proposed wards for Buckinghamshire Council.