That’s what the Electoral Commission is suggesting in its ‘farewell’ press release to mark the handing over of responsibilities for local government boundaries to a new body:
Max Caller, Chair of the Boundary Committee and Electoral Commissioner, said: “The new Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s job will be to keep the map of local government in England in good repair. Having fair local electoral arrangements is important to ensure that every voter, wherever they live in a council area, has a vote of similar weight in electing their representatives.
“We estimate that, by 2014, a quarter of all English local authorities will have imbalances between wards that meet the Electoral Commission’s current criteria for electoral reviews. We also know from talking to councils that there is a demand out there for reviews to look at the external boundaries of authorities, something that hasn’t been done since the early 1990s.”
(The reason for spinning off the local government boundary work to a new body – which in fact simply restores the situation until a few years ago – is to make the Electoral Commission a more narrowly focused body. It has already shed much of its policy consultation and formation role with the Ministry of Justice taking that back on board.)
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Are Labour going to cross another red line?
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Steve Trevethan
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6 Comments
If they are then that is excellent news. I find it hard to think of an English local authority that doesn’t have utterly inappropriate boundaries at some point. English districts all seem to either consist
of urban areas that have been chopped up when they should be kept together (Reading, Nottingham, Leicester) or collections of settlements in between which really have no common interests at all. Something that is being made even worse by the current vogue for massive county unitaries.
A major shakeup of boundaries could be just what the doctor ordered
There have been some clues to this recently, Mark.
When the Suffolk boundaries were recently reviewed the final recommendations hinted that a future review of Cambridgeshire boundaries might also look at incorporating Newmarket into Cambridgeshire (it’s surrounded by Cambs on 3 and a half sides!) and when I asked about this I was told that the current situation was reaching a point where such changes might be considered favourably.
A lot depends on the attitude of the incoming government. I suspect the Tories would see unitaries as an opportunity to reduce the cost of local government (though that case remains ‘out’ as far as I’m concerned) in which case a review of boundaries could take place at the same time.
If the Tories win (and they seem to think they will) they will almost certainly review Parliamentary Constituency boundaries. With Cameron wanting to reduce the number of MPs by 10% it would be nice to think the two could be reviewed in parallel and we could once again have some sort of fit of Council and Constituency Boundaries.
Meanwhile the good folk of Exeter still wait in limbo for news of whether their city council will be abolished without a right to vote on it.
It’s an odd situation that those opposed to this anti-democratic proposal have to hope for further delay and a Tory General Election win in order to see it off. Not a good situation for the LibDem City Council or for the LibDem PPC.
I’ve not read up on the Tory policy lately, but less than a year ago Eric Pickles (then Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) wrote:
“Local government reorganisation has been a vanity project by Ministers, more concerned about reducing the number of Conservative Councillors than delivering better quality services for taxpayers. If I am lucky enough to become Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government I intend to keep a loaded pearl-handled revolver in my drawer, and the first civil servant who suggests local government reorganisation will be shot. I am not at all interested in the structure of local government. I am extremely determined that we make the functions of local government work as efficiently and effectively as possible to ensure we offer the best possible services and the lowest council tax possible. No city or county will forced to change their status, but we will expect councils to share back office functions to cooperate and work together, and focus on delivery not navel gazing.”
I don’t think the Conservatives are likely to touch the boundaries of local authorities.
Thanks for that bit of extra information Martin.
Theo – it’s not impossible to both (a) believe further local government reorganisation should be avoided for the next X years and (b) believe the new boundaries body should look at minor boundary changes to tidy up anomalies, e.g. where there has been new development. So perhaps there isn’t a complete Pickles veto even if he ends up the relevant Cabinet Minister next year?
Newmarket in Cambridgeshire – that’s ridiculous!
Devil’s Dyke is the only demarkation line of any significance whatsoever for miles around (well, at least until Fleam Dyke).
If boundaries are going to be completely subordinated to everything except purely political reasons then the body which decides them has stepped over the line and joined the political debate – in which case all members should be elected by democratic ballot.