Another consultation is on ward boundaries for council elections…
What’s it about? It’s about drawing up new ward boundaries for council elections in Rochford District.
What isn’t it about? – it’s not about parliamentary elections. Only District Council.
What’s the deadline for replying? 12th September
Give me a bit more info: Its time for a government commission to look at all the various council wards we have in Rochford District. This is to ensure that , roughly, each councillor represents the same number of people. There’s a bit of an imbalance at the moment – for example Downhall and Rawreth Ward has more residents than average. The current intention is to keep the same number of councillors – 39. But at the moment we mostly have wards with two Councillors each , for example, Rayleigh currently has eight 2-member wards. Though some wards, like Hullbridge, have 3 councillors, and some , like Barling and Sutton , have 1 councillor. The commission would change this to have all wards with 3 councillors. Now the new ward boundaries have to be drawn up, also taking into account new housing expected in the next few years.
Are there any big changes planned? Well, it’s going to mean big changes across the district. For example, in west Rayleigh and Rawreth we currently have three wards, each with 2 councillors – Downhall & Rawreth, Grange, and Sweyne Park. These are likely to become just two wards, with 3 councillors each. Where do you draw the new boundaries? One way to begin would be to expand Downhall and Rawreth ward southwards to include all of Down Hall Road.
Where can I find out more? Look at the District Council website here You can draw your own lines on a map, and leave comments.
So who actually has the say on the divi-up ? – if it is the Cabinet then this will almost certainly be used to strengthen the stranglehold on power, surely all Councillors must have a say on this one!!!!!!.
Alternatively this could be a chance to swing the whole of West Rayleigh/Rawreth to a
Non Tory stronghold ( albeit a mix of LD /UKIP/Independent ) which is what we need to represent our views – currently ignored by the ruling Junta.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England has the final say, not the council.
They will definitely be interested in public responses. But the responses shouldn’t be ‘what’s best for the party I support’ but ‘it makes sense for these groups of roads to be in one ward because we have the same local problems, and use the same amenities’ or ‘this parish should all be in one ward, rather than being two small parts of two different wards’.