Didcot
A review of the number of councillors elected for each town council ward to reflect the number of electors they represent.
Impact on district and county council boundaries
None.
Didcot Town Council requested the review.
Summary of other responses
These are set out in the engagement summary document.
To consult on a proposal that each of the existing parish wards is represented by the following number of councillors:
All Saints – 5 councillors
Ladygrove – 6 councillors
Millbrook – 1 councillor
Northbourne – 3 councillors
Orchard – 1 councillor
Park – 5 councillors
The South Oxfordshire (Electoral Changes Order) 2014 divided the parish of Didcot into six parish wards and established the number of councillors to be elected to each ward as set out below:
All Saints – 5 councillors
Ladygrove – 7 councillors
Millbrook – 1 councillor
Northbourne – 4 councillors
Orchard – 1 councillor
Park – 3 councillors
It is an important democratic principle that each person’s vote should be of equal weight so far as possible. Whilst there is no legislative provision that each parish councillor should represent the same number of electors, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England states that it is not in the interests of effective and convenient local government to have significant differences in levels of representation.
Based on the current electorate for the parish (at 1.5.22) each of the 21 councillors would represent approximately 1103 electors across the whole parish. Based on this ratio the number of councillors for each ward would then be allocated as follows:
|
Parish Ward |
Proposed number of councillors |
Electorate at 1.5.22 |
Proposed electors per councillor (existing ratio shown in brackets) |
|
All Saints |
5 councillors |
5896 |
1179 (1179) |
|
Ladygrove |
6 councillors |
6102 |
1017 (872) |
|
Millbrook |
1 councillor |
1637 |
1637 (1637) |
|
Northbourne |
3 councillors |
3938 |
1313 (985) |
|
Orchard |
1 councillor |
467 |
467 (467) |
|
Park |
5 councillors |
5115 |
1023 (1705) |