Have your say on the number of parish councillors in Hazlemere

Closed 16 Jun 2024

Opened 7 May 2024

Feedback updated 18 Sep 2024

We asked

We asked for your views on the proposal to increase the number of parish councillors from 12 to 16 due to an increased workload and increasing housing in the area.  

The consultation ran from 7 May to 16 June 2024.  

You said

We received 29 responses to the survey:  

  • 21 agreed to the proposal to increase the number of councillors from 12 to 16; 6 disagreed; 2 didn’t know   

The responses in support of the proposal generally referred to increases in population, property development and workload. 

Those that disagreed or didn’t know referred to past councillor vacancies and workload.  

We did

On 10 September 2024, the Standards and General Purposes Committee agreed to increase the number of councillors from 12 to 16 to promote effective and convenient local government.  

A Reorganisation Order was also agreed by the Committee which means the changes will take effect on 1 March 2025, in time for the next scheduled local elections on 1 May 2025. 

Overview

Buckinghamshire Council logo

We want to hear your view on a proposal to increase the number of parish councillors in Hazlemere.

As Buckinghamshire Council, we are responsible for reviewing local governance arrangements to ensure they meet local needs. Local governance arrangements are the processes in place for decision making that affects you and your local area. This includes how you and your local community are represented, such as by your local councillors at council meetings. It also includes who you can contact if you have a query about services in your area.

This review is called a community governance review and investigates whether:

  • decisions made in your local area reflect the identity and interests of the local community
  • arrangements are as convenient and effective as possible

The proposal

Hazlemere Parish Council have proposed an increase in the number of parish councillors from 12 to 16.

The parish council’s reason for requesting the proposed change is because of an increase in workload due to the increasing population and new housing developments in the area.

There are currently 2 wards in the parish; North and South. Each of the wards have 6 councillors. In its proposal, Hazlemere Parish Council did not state how the additional councillors would be split across the two wards. If the council size increased by 4 councillors one option is for 2 additional councillors to represent each ward.

Electorate and forecast for 2028
Parish ward Polling district 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2028 forecast 2023 to 2028 difference
Hazlemere North RK

3778

3894

3876

3786

3850

3955

+105

Hazlemere South RL

3602

3735

3663

3607

3664

3664

0

  Total

7380

7629

7539

7393

7514

7619

+105

Using the 2028 electorate forecast of 7619, the National Association of Local Councils recommendations would provide a suggested council size of between 14 and 15 councillors. Aston Business School recommendations would suggest a council size of between 9 to 16 councillors.

Currently there are 12 councillors out of a total of 12.

No changes to the parish boundary are being requested.

Standards and General Purposes Committee considered the request at its meeting on 4 April 2024 and agreed for a CGR to be undertaken. View the meeting report.

Guidance on parish council size

The guidance on council size is that a parish or town council must have no fewer than five councillors. There are otherwise no rules to the number of councillors that a parish or town council must or can have.

Research from Aston Business School recommends the following:

Electors

Councillors

less than 500

5 to 8

501 to 2,500

6 to 12

2,501 to 10,000

9 to 16

10,001 to 20,000

13 to 27

more than 20,000

13 to 31

The National Association of Local Councils recommends:

Electors

Councillors

Electors

Councillors

up to 900

7

up to 10,400

17

1,400

8

11,900

18

2,000

9

13,500

19

2,700

10

15,200

20

3,500

11

17,000

21

4,400

12

18,900

22

5,400

13

20,900

23

6,500

14

23,000

24

7,700

15

over 23,000

25

9,000

16

 

 

Statutory guidance states ‘each area should be considered on its own merits, having regard to its population, geography and the pattern of communities, and therefore the Council is prepared to pay particular attention to existing levels of representation, the broad pattern of existing council sizes.’ (Guidance on community governance reviews, paragraph 156, page 44).

The recommendations of a review should also have regard to the important democratic principle that each person’s vote should be of equal weight so far as possible.

Related documents

Before you respond to this activity, please have a look at the following documents:

How to have your say

You can tell us your views in one of the following ways:

If you have any questions about this activity, please email us at elections@buckinghamshire.gov.uk or phone us on 01296 798141.

Please tell us your views by 11:59pm on Sunday 16 June 2024.

What happens next

Your feedback will be considered by councillors, along with other relevant information. We will then consider the future community governance arrangements for the area.

Standards and General Purposes Committee will consider and approve the draft recommendations and decide on the next stages of the Community Governance Review in Summer 2024. This is when the final recommendations are expected to be published and the Community Governance Review ends.

If the proposal is taken forward, the Reorganisation Order would be made in Autumn 2024. The Order would set out the timetable for change.

Privacy

We will use the information you provide here only for this activity. We will store the information securely in line with data protection laws and will not share or publish any personal details. For more information about data and privacy, please see our Privacy Policy.

If you have questions about data and privacy, please email us on dataprotection@buckinghamshire.gov.uk or write to our Data Protection Officer at Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF.

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