Cuts to councillors are rejected

8:19am Saturday 13th October 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

PROPOSALS to cut the number of Basingstoke and Deane Borough councillors from 60 to 56 have been rejected by an electoral watchdog.

However, many of the electoral wards in the north of Basingstoke are still set for a major reorganisation later in the year if the recommendations put forward by the Boundary Committee are accepted by the Electoral Commission.

Although we didn’t get the boundaries in all the places our council group would have liked to have seen, we were pleased the committee saw the need to keep 60 councillors

Cllr Paula Baker

The committee conducted a two-year review of the size of electoral wards to ensure the councillors represented roughly equal numbers of residents.

In May, the Conservative-controlled borough council had asked, in the face of Liberal Democrat opposition, for a 56-seat council, when it submitted its final views to the committee.

The Boundary Committee has now rejected this idea and a separate suggestion, from a Conservative aide, that the number of councillors be slashed to 30.

Council leaders gave their reactions to the plan now put forward by the Boundary Committee.

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Paula Baker said: "Although we didn't get the boundaries in all the places our council group would have liked to have seen, we were pleased the committee saw the need to keep 60 councillors."

But she predicted the whole exercise might have to be repeated in a couple of years because of house-building in the borough.

While not happy with every detail, Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Ruffell said: "They have put the interests of the borough first and ignored some of the ridiculous suggestions put forward by the Liberal Democrats."

Labour leader Cllr Gary Watts was upset at the committee's recommendation for Berg estate and the Wykeham Drive area. He said: "It's trampled over well-established communities just to make the numbers add up."

Tadley councillor David Leeks, an independent, said he was appalled by the changes in the north of the borough.

"They have split the ward of Tadley when they didn't need to," he said.

Both Tadley Town Council and Baughurst Parish Council opposed the changes, he said.

The major changes proposed by the boundary watchdogs

• Creation of a new electoral district called Bramley and Sherfield with two council seats.
• The two-seat Calleva ward to be dissolved, as one-seat Pamber ward is altered to incorporate Silchester in a new two-seat ward.
• Two councillors to represent Winklebury instead of current three.
• Tadley to be reorganised with Tadley North disbanded as a separate entity. One Tadley North seat added to Baughurst to create a new two-seat ward and a new one-seat Tadley Central ward to be created.
• Burghclere ward, which has one seat, to merge with one-seat Highclere and Bourne ward to create a new two-seat ward.
• Transferral of 492 Berg estate electors from Kempshott ward into South Ham ward.
• Kempshott Rise to move from Hatch Warren and Beggarwood ward into Kempshott ward.
• Old Kempshott Lane transferred to Buckskin.
• The Wykeham Drive area of Winklebury transferred to Buckskin.