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Letter: Answers on ward boundary review
EDITOR – I have had a number of residents contact me regarding the Boundary Commission Review that was reported in the Rasen Mail a few weeks ago.
I would like to try and answer some of these questions. Firstly, West Lindsey has had no option but to move this forward, it has come from central government.
Yes, local tax payers will have to pick up some of the cost with an all out local election in two years. More on this later.
The parish and town council boundaries will not be altered, if at present you pay Middle Rasen or Market Rasen rates this will not change.
The boundaries that are likely to be altered are the district ward boundaries only.
There is an imbalance at the moment with some councillors having to represent more electorates than others.
Middle Rasen is the prime example, where the ward has had a large increase in population but still has only one councillor to represent the local electorate.
Caistor on the other hand has two councillors and has seen very little growth.
West Lindsey has seen a growth of about 30 per cent in the last ten years and this has lead to this imbalance.
We have a population in West Lindsey of just fewer than 90,000. We have 25 Wards which are covered by 37 councillors.
West Lindsey has elections by thirds, so every three years out of four we have the third of the councillors up for election.
The fourth year we have county elections and no district elections. So if we keep the current system, we are likely to have three councillors per ward throughout the district. We already have some in Gainsborough.
Determining the size of each ward will come out of the consultation but the review will take into account the identities and interests of local communities, such as Market Rasen and Middle Rasen when drawing up new boundaries.
They may put the two together and remove some of the smaller villages from the Market Rasen and Middle Rasen Wards.
Logical, as the two overlap in many ways. A case in question is The Furlongs and Lady Frances Drive, where some of the houses are in Market Rasen and some in Middle Rasen.
So what happens after all this consultation and what will be the next step?
We are going to have an all out election in 2012. If we stick to the elections by thirds, it looks as though we will have the opportunity to pick three councillors to represent our ward.
The one with the most votes will have a four year term; second will have three years and the third two years.
If this is the case then we will need the number of councillors devisable by three.
We could go down to having one less councillor or have an extra two. This will depend on the number of wards and number of electorates per ward councillor.
Some wards have elections next year, such as Middle Rasen. The person elected will only hold the seat for the one year because of the all out elections the following year.
COUN KEN BRIDGER
District Councillor for Market Rasen
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Weather for Market Rasen
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -4 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
