Have your say on the number of parish councillors in Longwick-cum-Ilmer

Feedback updated 18 Sep 2024

We asked

We asked for your views on the proposal to increase the number of parish councillors from 7 to 9 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 3 responses to the survey:

1 agreed to the proposal to increase the number of councillors from 7 to 9; 2 disagreed

The response in support of the proposal referred to increases in population.

Of those that disagreed 1 questioned the need to increase the council size, and 1 referred to a past vacancy.

We did

On 10 September 2024, the Standards and General Purposes Committee acknowledged the small number of responses. It recognised that the proposal was supported by the Longwick-cum-Ilmer Parish Council who had requested the review. It agreed to increase the number of councillors from 7 to 9 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

We want to hear your view on a proposal to increase the number of parish councillors in Longwick-cum-Ilmer.

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

Longwick-cum-Ilmer Parish Council have proposed an increase in the number of parish councillors from 7 to 9.

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

Electorate and forecast for 2028
Parish ward	Polling district	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2028 forecast	2023 to 2028 difference
Longwick-cum-Ilmer	KC	1023	1169	1304	1408	1423	1505	+82

Using the 2028 electorate forecast of 1505, the National Association of Local Councils recommendations would provide a suggested council size of between 8 and 9 councillors. Aston Business School recommendations would suggest a council size of between 6 to 12 councillors.

Currently there are 6 councillors out of a total of 7.

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 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.

How to have your say

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

complete the online survey using the link at the end of the page
complete, and return, a printed version of the survey (PDF 0.21MB)
email us at elections@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
write to us at Longwick-cum-Ilmer CGR consultation, Electoral Services, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP19 8LB

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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