Lawley will not get ward status

Lawley has missed out on the chance to become a stand-alone ward after it was not included in the boundary Commission's final recommendations for the Telford & Wrekin area. It will instead remain spilt across three existing wards.

Councillors belonging to Telford & Wrekin Council's boundary committee described the decision as a "lost opportunity" for the area.

Hundreds of new homes and a new shopping street are being built and are expected to be completed by 2016.

Work is currently ongoing on phase six of the Ironstone project – which developers have claimed will see £62.5 million of investment come into the town.

The new development has also brought in high street giant Morrisons into Lawley, which opened a supermarket in March last year, and Marston's Brewery which opened the Grazing Cow in November 2011.

The Boundary Commission's document is the result of 12 weeks of public consultation on plans to change parish and borough council ward boundaries in the borough to reflect the changes in population caused by new housing developments.

The final recommendations suggest that Telford & Wrekin should still be represented by 54 councillors, the same amount as in the current situation.

Under the proposals, those councillors would represent 12 single-member, 12 two-member and six three-member wards across the district. In response to concerns raised by residents, the commission has changed a number of proposals made in its draft recommendations.

In the final recommendations, the parishes of Eyton-upon-the-Weald-Moors and Preston-upon-the-Weald-Moors are both included in a two-member Edgmond & Ercall Magna ward.

It also now includes a single-member Admaston & Bratton ward covering the area of the same name, after a previous draft proposed including it with Shawbirch.

Local people also told the commission that the McCormick Drive area shares closer interests with the Shawbirch area than the Dothill ward.

Previous proposals showed plans to combine Shawbirch with Admaston & Bratton, which many residents felt would not work.

As a result the commission has decided that the 120 electors in the area should be part of the Shawbirch ward in their final proposals.

In St Georges, the proposals have been changed so the St Georges Sports Club and Park Close area will be part of the St Georges ward and not Priorslee. Councillor Robert Sloan, chairman of the boundary committee on Telford & Wrekin Council, said that the commission seemed to have listened to many of the public's concerns. He said: "I think they look okay in terms of the representations we and others made on some anomalies we saw.

"They seem to have listened to the public around Shawbirch and that area which didn't work and wouldn't work."

But Mr Sloan said the committee were disappointed that Lawley had been split between three wards, rather than being made into its own ward.

He said: "Perhaps it is an issue of timing and when they came, but it is a part of their role to look to the future as we did. Very much around that new Morrisons development, the Grazing Cow, the new houses and the wider area, the school and all of that, I think Lawley is and could sustain a single-member ward. People who live in Lawley, depending on where they live, will have to check am I represented by this councillor or this councillor. I think it is a missed opportunity but we have always said we were not expecting to see it overturned."

Max Caller, chairman of the Boundary Commission, said: "We are extremely grateful to the people of Telford & Wrekin who took the time and effort to send us their views. The commission considered every piece of evidence it received before finalising these recommendations. Across the borough, we have sought to balance the views expressed to us by local people with the criteria we must apply when we are deciding on new electoral arrangements. As such, we believe these recommendations deliver electoral equality for voters as well as reflecting the identities of communities across Telford & Wrekin."

The new arrangements proposed by the commission will now have to be implemented by Parliament and could come into force at the council elections in 2015.

Russell Griffin, a spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council, said: "Overall, the council believes the recommendations are sensible. The council is pleased to note that LGBCE have in a number of areas listened to consultation and modified their draft proposals. The council remains disappointed that the fast growing Lawley community can not at this stage be represented by its own borough ward."