NOTICE ISSUED BY CHERWELL DISTRICT COUNCIL 31 July 2017
Cherwell District Council Community Governance Review 2017 re possible change in the number of Parish Councillors in some parishes
Cherwell District Council is carrying out a Community Governance Review. This is the process that allows the Council to make changes to parishes, such as parish boundaries and numbers of parish councillors.
Five parish councils contacted Cherwell District Council, to ask for a review of their number of parish councillors. A working group of district councillors considered the requests, and made recommendations to full Council on 17 July 2017.
Councillors agreed all of the recommendations and this is your opportunity to comment on the proposed change for Stratton Audley.
Stratton Audley Parish Council contacted Cherwell District Council in 2016 and requested that consideration be given to increasing the number of councillors for the parish from five to seven.
The reason for the request is the opportunity to attract a broader cross section of the community, reduce the amount of work each councillor undertakes by spreading the load and the fact that a larger council would also provide resilience in the event of holidays or sickness.
The last parish election for Stratton Audley was held in 2014, and there were five candidates for the five seats.
The electorate for Stratton Audley on 1 December 2016 was 349. Guidance from NALC recommends a parish council of seven where the electorate is up to 900.
On this basis, the recommendation is that the number of parish councillors be increased by two, so there would be seven parish councillors from the next scheduled election in Stratton Audley in 2018.
What happens next?
People now have the opportunity to tell the Council what they think of these recommendations.
You can send an email to democracy@Cherwellandsouthnorthants.gov.uk, or visit our webpage www.cherwell.gov.uk/communitygovernance and click on the survey monkey link to reply electronically.
All written or emailed responses should reach us by Friday 8 September 2017 to be taken into consideration. The online survey will close at 11:59pm on the same date.
Responses received will be considered by the working group of District Councillors, who will make a final set of recommendations that will be considered at the meeting of Full Council on Monday 16 October 2017.