Agenda item

The Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales was reviewing the electoral arrangements for the City of Newport with a view to considering and formulating proposals for future arrangements. This was part of the Commission’s programme to review all principal councils in Wales, in time for new arrangements to be introduced for the next local government elections in 2022.  Newport was the 17th council to be reviewed.

The Commission published initial consultation documentson 30^th January 2019, showing the current elector to Councillor ratios in the City and how these compared to their Council Size Policy and ideal ratios.  A cross-party working group was set up to review the evidence and options for future electoral arrangements in Newport, and formulate a draft response to the Commission’s initial consultation process. The group’s final report was presented to full Council on 30^th April 2019, when the recommendations were approved and adopted.  The Council’s proposals and preferred options were then submitted to the Commission for consideration.

The Commission’s Draft Proposals were finalised in October 2019 but not published until January 2020. The Council has until 8 April 2020 to formulate and submit any response to the draft proposals. The Commission would then consider any consultation responses before finalising their proposals, which would be submitted to the Welsh Government Ministers for approval, with or without modification. The necessary Order would then be made to implement the new electoral arrangements prior to the next local government elections in May 2022.

In summary the draft proposals would establish a Council of 49 Members and 22 Wards, compared to the current 50 Members and 20 Wards.

The Communities of Wentlooge and Coedkernew would be moved from the current Marshfield Ward and merged with the existing Tredegar Park Ward to form a new Tredegar Park and Marshfield East Ward. The new Ward would have two Members, while the remainder of Marshfield would have one.

Part of the existing community of Graig would be merged with the Community of Rogerstone. The existing Rogerstone Ward would be divided into three new Wards with four members between them.

Part of the existing community of Pillgwenlly would be transferred to Stow Hill, both Wards retaining two Members each.

The Community of Bishton would transfer from Llanwern to Langstone. The Community of Nash would transfer from Liswerry to Llanwern with representation unchanged.

The wards of Bettws and Beechwood would remain unchanged but membership would be reduced from three members to two in each ward.

Comments from the committee:

Lengthy and meaningful discussion ensued regarding how the recommendation to council would be put forward and after careful consideration the general conclusion was noted in the following recommendations.

§  Chair expressed the opinion that an extraordinary council meeting should be held to discuss the proposals and recommendations to take forward to the Boundary Commission.

§  The Committee considered that a uniformed response at an extraordinary council would be unachievable.  A suggested response therefore would be to look at individual views expressed by the public rather than a consolidated view from the council.  Additionally, If there were any views these, could be put to the Boundary Commission by the political parties.

§  The Monitoring Officer advised that the committee agree on a general consensus to take back to the Boundary Commission. 

§  Members were asked to consider the proposed reduction of councillors in Bettws and Beechwood wards put forward by the Boundary Commission.  If the Committee were to agree at Council that the numbers be retained rather than reduced, this would see an extra two councillors in place, as opposed to the proposed 49 councillors.  Single member wards might be something that councillors might agree on and this could be a consistent approach by council in agreeing to this.  The overall outcome was not too disappointing and any extra councillors would be within the margins set by the Boundary Commission, allowing the Council to increase by one or two.  51 Councillors would therefore still be acceptable in terms of council size and would leave the door open for Llanwern at the next review. 

§  The Committee generally agreed that Newport was growing and that three members was a viable number.  The increase in numbers to Rogerstone Ward members were also considered a realistic number.  Bettws and Beechwood wards should be about the numbers therefore three members per ward should be retained.

§  The Committee referred to the cross party group discussions, which took place last year.  Members were generally in agreement as was the Boundary Commission agreed with the cross party before they went to council.  This decision changed at council therefore some of the Committee were not convinced that there would be a general agreement at council.  Cross party general consensus changed at council. 

§  The Committee advised that the individual ward’s work load, geography, community, cohesion, trend, growth, etc should be considered, with this in mind Bettws and Beechwood should remain the same and although there was significant variation they were both coherent and large communities.  The general consensus therefore was that the Boundary Commission should not take a statistical approach.

§  The Boundary Commission were very forthcoming when contacted, this was pointed out in relation to Rogerstone ward.  Rogerstone ward members welcomed an extra ward member but did not agree with dividing Rogerstone.  From a ratio point of view the Boundary Commission’s work was based on people registered to vote.  Ward members did however deal with casework of constituents not registered to vote and they felt the logic used by the Boundary Commission was flawed.  The Boundary Commission stated that they did not like multi member wards and preferred on member per ward but did not say why.  Whilst the Boundary Commission did only record registered voters, they had taken into account the socio-economic factors.   After lengthy discussion it was concluded by the Monitoring officers that in terms of numbers, Newport came out quite well, and could not necessarily disagree with their methodology.  

The Chair also referred to 16 year olds being able to vote.  This was also factored in to the figures but did not make any difference to the percentages.

§  The Committee was concerned that the situation for Bettws ward in particular, would put strain on two members as they worked extremely hard and reducing the councillors  would put more onus on them workwise and the residents would not get the service they deserved.

§  Whilst the Committee generally agreed that Rogerstone ward should not be divided, it was agreed at council in April 2019 that they would.

Agreed:

§  After very careful discussion and consideration the Committee recommended that Council on 27 February 2020, should not submit a response to the Boundary Commission.

§  That three councillors remain for Bettws and Beechwood Wards.