In a bit of a surprise announcement recently, the Buckinghamshire Council said it was putting in a submission to cut the number of representative Councillors in Bucks down to 120. That is 73 fewer Councillors.
What does this mean for Bucks and Beaconsfield?
Firstly it is important to say that one of the big arguments for adopting a Unitary Council approach in Bucks and abolishing the old District Councils was because of cost savings. This meant fewer Councillors. Then COVID came along and last years planned local elections were postponed, so everyone who was Councillor in the old Districts was automatically popped into the new Council - unavoidable maybe(?) but it happened. Of course, we all get a chance to vote on this in May this year, so this makeup is likely to change. We at the
Beaconsfield Society has always thought that there was a need to reduce the numbers of Councillors so the decision to suggest revisions to fewer Councillors is something we applaud.
Do you know the current breakdown on Councillors - types, political parties etc.? Well, here is is
There are one or two things we discovered in closer examinations ...
There are 193 Councillors in total, with 150 Conservative, but then there are strangely 4 'other Conservatives' who are not in the main Conservative Political Party listing - black sheep of the Conservatives, maybe? We don't know! Your guess is as good as ours. But there is also a resident group, and then there is a mix of 'groupings', which seems to be Councillors ganging together in a Conservative-controlled Council. See here
But what does a drop in the numbers mean for Beaconsfield? In the local elections, you will get a chance to choose three representatives for Beaconsfield. Still, we cannot tell when the Boundary Commission will decide on numbers of Councillors or whether it is already allowed in the numbers we choose in May's local elections. If we find out more, we will update you here.
The way we are governed locally is something you will not be surprised to hear something the Beaconsfield Society keeps an eye on, not because we are a political group but because it pays to know how the system works when we are dealing with local government, so we do not waste their time or ours by not doing things the right way. We have to say the system has too frequently been used against us on requests for information in the past and cynically manipulated to stall campaigns we have had or even to avoid answering questions or dealing with local issues. Therefore, we have to remain aware of how this impacts our town if we want to help get things sorted for the better.
We have another blog post planned on planning applications and how the system has altered recently, meaning that some tactics are less effective than others in objections. Also, how the power comes to rest with Councillors, not local opinions, resident or civic groups or just plain popular opinion. Who and how we choose Councillors in May will be even more important as we will have fewer to deal with and represent us. Therefore, we need a high calibre in the Society's opinion on those who do represent us.
Fewer people to represent us will result in better people being selected perhaps - but not necessarily!