Shropshire Council leader plans boundary shake-up, warning change is 'inevitable'

Councillor Peter Nutting said one ward in Shrewsbury – Bayston Hill, Column and Sutton – has three councillors and needs urgent action, while divisions are varying massively in size.

He said he has called on the Boundary Commission to work with him after the next council election in 2021 – but they have turned down his offer.

Instead, he says he will get the council to draw up its own plans after discovering that the Radbrook and Shifnal wards are 30 per cent bigger than average, while some in the south of the county are 10 per cent smaller than average.

Councillor Nutting said: “Shropshire Council is planning to undertake a review of town and parish council boundaries after the next council election in 2021.

“However, the council has received a letter from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England explaining that they do not intend to review Shropshire Council divisions or external boundaries in Shropshire in the foreseeable future.

“Shropshire Council has received several requests to look at reviewing town and parish boundaries and it had been hoped that the review of Shropshire Council divisions and town and parish boundaries could have taken place together, so that more coterminous boundaries could have been created.

Pushing

“The Boundary Commission‘s decision is slightly disappointing as the current set up has an unsatisfactory three member seat covering Bayston Hill, Sutton and Reabrook and The Column area of Shrewsbury – and this is a huge area that urgently needs looking at.”

He added: “Shropshire Council also has two divisions – Radbrook and Shifnal – that are about 30 per cent bigger than the average size, and several divisions in South Shropshire that are more than 10 per cent below the average.

“As leader of the council I will be pushing for a review of town and parish boundaries soon after the elections in 2021 but this may need to be carried out internally by Shropshire Council rather than by the electoral commission.

“There are currently several areas of the county where development has meant that some existing boundaries no longer make sense and in any case there is a strong argument that having over 150 town and parish councils in the county is far too many creating too much bureaucracy.

“I will be having lots of discussions with the town and parish council sector over the next few months but some change is, I believe, inevitable.”