District council backs plan to cut councillor numbers by 20%+

Councillors at Suffolk Coast District Council have voted to reduce their number by more than a fifth, a proposed move that could save the local authority nearly £100,000.

A recommendation for a cut from 55 to 43 councillors will be made to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE), which is conducting a further electoral review.

A working group of councillors, including all four political group leaders, had by a majority recommended a cut to 43, although alternative proposals for 48 or 45 members were also put forward at the meeting.

The next phase of Suffolk Coastal’s review will involve consideration of appropriate warding patterns, how many wards and what they should be called.

The LGBCE will decide in April how many councillors it thinks Suffolk Coastal should have and then carry out its first public consultation. This is currently scheduled for between April 23 and June 3, after which it will seek views during the summer and autumn about warding patterns. 

The Commission will publish its draft recommendations in February 2014. These will also be subject to public consultation between February and April 2014.

Any changes would require Parliamentary approval. They would be in place for the next scheduled district council elections in May 2015.

Cllr Ray Herring, Leader of Suffolk Coastal, said: "We asked the LGBCE to also look at the case for trimming the number of councillors because we have modernised our council in recent years, streamlining our spending, management, staffing, committees and decision-making structures and it seemed appropriate to also review if we now had too many councillors.

"I am proud that the majority of our councillors could see the logic of putting in place a more business-like structure that could maintain and probably strengthen the links between those elected and their constituents. It once again shows this council is ready to take tough decisions that will make us more efficient and effective, as well as saving money.

Cllr Herring added: "However, ours is only a recommendation, and the LGBCE will be consulting widely and involving the public in a lengthy process which will review how many councillors our council should have, their individual ward boundaries, the number of wards and the names of those wards.”

The LGBCE review was triggered because of the uneven ratio of councillor to electors across the local authority’s area. Councillors for some areas, Kesgrave East and Rendlesham, represent 40% more electors than the district average.