Boundaries abound!

You know what they say, you wait ages for one and then two come at once.  

The Boundary Commission proposal for Cambridgeshire County Council's wards (known as divisions) is currently out for consultation. The Commission has now announced that it is going to look at the boundaries for South Cambridgeshire District wards, in part because a number of them are too small in terms of population against the average, in part because every ten years or so they come and kick the tyres, so to speak. 

I attended a briefing from the Commission where the options were outlined.

And there are quite a few options, including going to much bigger, all 3- member wards, and whether there is one big election every 4 years or a third of councillors are elected each year in a four year cycle. The Commission recognises that in rural areas too big a ward can mean losing contact with the community. The review also raises the question of how many councillors should there be - South Cambs is currently at the high end, at 57 councillors, and this is likely to reduce - perhaps by 10, perhaps more, but this is again for discussion. 

Does any of this matter to residents? Although councillors are often depicted as interfering busybodies with too much time on their hands, at best, they are also the people who decide major planning applications, decide where the roads get resurfaced, chase up things on behalf of local residents, and argue with government for more money for local schools. Too small a group of councillors and they lose their connections with their communities, too big and they become an unneccessary layer of burdensome bureaucracy. The district council review will be seeking views later this year.