Commission decides to keep councillor numbers

The Local Government Boundary Commission has decided the number of Walsall Council elected members will remain at 60 – with three councillors in each of the borough’s 20 wards.

In submissions made by authority officers to the review, they said reducing the number would be ‘unsustainable’ while also saying increasing members would leave areas over represented.

Current councillors were also surveyed with the majority of respondents in favour of keeping the same number of elected members.

The independent Commission is now holding a public consultation asking members of the public for their views on their communities before drawing up proposals for new ward boundaries.

Officer submissions to the Commission said: “To reduce the number of elected members poses a risk to appropriate representation of local residents as the ratio of electors to members would change significantly.

“It would also impact on the capacity of councillors to fulfil their responsibilities in terms of strategic leadership and accountability and to deliver the council’s governance structures.

“In addition to Cabinet there are over 120 positions on council committees, excluding external bodies.

“Given the range of time survey respondents spend each week on councillor activity it would be unsustainable to reduce the overall number of elected members.

“The population and electorate forecasts suggest the overall population is not going to significantly alter.

“Even the housing growth being considered in the local plan would result in an increase of less than one per cent per year.

“Increasing the number of elected members therefore would cause a likelihood of some or all wards being substantially over represented.

“It is the view of the political and officer leadership that the current membership size is required to deliver the governance arrangements for the council.

“The current council size and representation of residents with three elected members per ward is in keeping with arrangements in statistical neighbouring authorities.

A recent survey of elected members confirmed that the majority of elected members feel the current council size is an appropriate size to effectively facilitate the representation of residents and the management of the borough.

“There was a 55 per cent response rate (33 respondents). Eighty eight per cent of the respondents answered ‘yes’.

“Sustaining current council size is where there is consensus amongst the majority of elected members and also officers.”

The consultation, which runs until October 30, can be accessed at lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/walsall