The Local Government Boundary Commission wants to hear what residents and local organisations think about their recommendations for the electoral arrangements for Cheshire East Council.
A ten-week consultation on the proposals will run until 9 December 2024.
The Commission is the independent body that draws these boundaries. It is reviewing Cheshire East Council to make sure councillors will represent about the same number of electors, and that ward arrangements will help the council work effectively.
The Commission has published proposals for changes to Cheshire East. It is proposing that there should be 82 councillors representing 50 wards. Most wards will change.
Proposed changes include:
- Alderley Edge & Chorley Ward - combining the parishes of Alderley Edge and Chorley - to be represented by one councillor
- Handforth Ward - consisting of Handforth and Styal parishes
- Wilmslow Lacey Green Ward - with the River Bollin and the railway line as identifiable boundaries for this ward
- Wilmslow East & Dean Row Ward - merging the existing Wilmslow Dean Row and Wilmslow East wards into a two-councillor ward
- Wilmslow West Ward - to include the entirety of Fulshaw Park and move Chorley parish from the existing Wilmslow West & Chorley ward into a ward with Alderley Edge parish
Launching the consultation Professor Colin Mellors, Chair of the Commission, said: "We want people in Cheshire East to help us. We have drawn up proposals for new wards in Cheshire East. We want to make sure these new electoral arrangements reflect communities. We also want them to be easy to understand and convenient for local people.
"Residents and local organisations can help us do that. We would like them to let us know whether they agree with our proposals before we take final decisions."
The Commission has a dedicated section on its website where people can see the detail of the proposals and comment on the names of wards and their boundaries:
https://www.lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/cheshire-east
People can also give their views by e-mail at [email protected].
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Shouldn't that say ..."we are making proposals to change the electoral arrangements..." at this stage?
Sounds kind-of final to me.
Firstly, I should say that this is not work initiated by Cheshire East and the council would probably rather not be spending the money on it. It is a review by the Local Government Boundary Commission and we have to comply. They do it periodically to ensure that, with all the new development going on, there is still roughly the same number of residents per elected Councillor. The aim is to get the elector/ councillor ratio within about 10% of the average across the borough (I think it was about 2300 electors per cllr).
When we looked at Wilmslow, it wasn’t a million miles out but it did need adjustment. Also, there were some aspects which weren’t right. For example, Colshaw is currently part of Wilmslow at a Town Council level but is part of Handforth for Cheshire East. It was also felt that residents in Colshaw identify themselves as being more with Wilmslow than Handforth so it made sense to bring Colshaw into a Wilmslow ward for Cheshire East. However, that messed up the numbers because Dean Row ward would have too many voters and Handforth too few.
As Wilmslow East (my ward) was also a little low on the ratio, I identified that by merging Wilmslow East and Dean Row and having the combined ward represented by two Cllrs it averaged out and worked out about right in terms of ratios.
Lacey Green (and Styal) was a little high on numbers so Styal residents (who already have their own Parish councillors and don’t therefore fall under Wilmslow Town Council will, under the proposal, be represented by the two Handforth Councillors thus bringing Lacey Green down and readjusting Handforth up to be more in line with the average.
Similarly, with Chorley, not only do they have their own parish council and are not therefore part of Wilmslow Town Council but Chorley kind of wraps around Alderley edge so it was felt that it would be better represented by the Alderley Councillor than the Wilmslow west (and Chorley) CEC cllr.
The other significant change is that the boundary between Wilmslow East and West would change so that the whole of the “businesses” area is represented by one councillor rather than being split down the middle as it is at the moment (and to make the numbers work that means the boundary between the two wards moves east from the middle of Knutsford Road to the middle of Alderley Road (which ironically means that I then won’t live in my own ward if I stand for re-election next elections!).
I’ve probably made that more complicated than it needs to be but, ultimately, nothing changes except some people will be in a different ward represented by a different person but as it comes into force at the next election, you still get to vote for who that is.
@Pete Taylor, I think it probably is final but the commission did not agree with some of the proposals CEC put forward so they are reconsulting on their proposals. I don't know if they will change them as a result of consultation responses but we do get the impression they are quite receptive to resident suggestions.
Hope that helps anyway.
Cllr Dave Jefferay