Olympic e-gold for Stratford - Stratford Herald

Tuesday 26th March, 2013 Midweek Herald
3
First draft of
district boundary
changes published
THE independent Local Government Boundary
Commission for England has published its final
recommendations for new electoral arrangements
for Warwick District Council.
The publication follows
an 11-week public consultation
on its draft proposals
last year and draws new
boundaries for each council
ward across Warwick.
The commission’s final
recommendations propose
that Warwick should be represented
by 46 councillors in
the future, the same as the
current arrangements. The
recommendations also propose
that those councillors
should represent four threemember
wards, 16 twomember
wards and two
single-member wards across
the district.
Max Caller, chair of the
commission, said: “We are
extremely grateful to the
people of Warwick who took
the time and effort to send us
their views. The commission
considered every piece of
evidence it received before
finalising these recommendations.
“Across the district, we
have sought to balance the
views expressed to us by
local people with the criteria
we must apply when we are
deciding on new electoral
arrangements. As such, we
believe these recommendations
deliver electoral
equality for voters as well as
reflecting the identities of
communities across Warwick.”
In response to the views
submitted to it during the
consultation, the commission
proposes some changes
to the draft recommendations
it put forward last
October. For example, the
final recommendations propose
to include a threemember
Whitnash ward
which would cover virtually
the whole of that parish.
In Warwick town, the
commission is now proposing
that there should be a
Heathcote and Myton ward
which would include the
Europa Way development
with the Heathcote part of
the Warwick Town Council
area.
In the Kenilworth area,
the commission was persuaded
by the council’s evidence
that the ward pattern
should remain the same as
the current arrangements. It
has therefore changed its
draft recommendations
accordingly.
The final recommendations
also mean that there
Report by Ron Westrich
should be a single-member
Bishop’s Tachbrook ward to
cover the parish.
The proposed new
arrangements must now be
implemented by Parliament.
A draft order – the legal document
which brings into
news@stratford-herald.com
force the recommendations
– will be laid in Parliament
in the next few months. The
draft order provides for the
new electoral arrangements
to come into force at the district
council elections in
2015.