When the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) published its "final recommendations" on new electoral arrangements for Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester, Acton Bridge Parish Council was disappointed that our own clearly-expressed preference to remain linked to the rural communities to our West had been over-ridden, largely at the behest of Cuddington and Weaverham. The new "Weaver and Cuddington" Ward consists of four Parishes - Acton Bridge, Cuddington (which includes the community of Sandiway), Dutton, and Weaverham.
Our proposal was also that recommended by Cheshire West & Chester Council, and supported by both Kingsley and Dutton Parish Councils. You can read more about this decision, and its implications for how our Parishioners will be represented, on the
LGBCE website.
Background...
The January 2010 Parish Council meeting took place on Monday, 11. January, at 7 pm with a Public Meeting to discuss local government reorganisation. We were pleased to see more than a dozen residents, as well as a full Parish Council and two of our three Cheshire West and Chester Councillors, Cllr Alan McKie and Cllr Ralph Oultram.
Cheshire West and Chester forms broadly the north-western half of the previous administrative County of Cheshire, and the six Boroughs such as Vale Royal have disappeared. Cheshire West and Chester is to be divided into 44 Wards, each to have between one and three Councillors, representing approximately 3,300 electors each, but retaining where possible the existing Parish boundaries. In multi-member Wards there would be no division of Councillors' representation - both or all Councillors would represent all the electors in their Ward. The Parish Council believes that there is a clear advantage in being part of a Ward with several Councillors. In order to achieve the new Ward sizes, there has been a numerical exercise allocating individual Parishes such as Acton Bridge into the Wards.
The original proposal from Cheshire West and Chester retained the former "Weaver" Ward, and was supported by the Parish Council, but a recent decision from the Boundary Committee has overturned this, and proposes that the rural villages be replaced by Cuddington within a new Ward boundary.
The blocks of numbers are roughly as follows (2008 Register figures):-
- Weaverham (three wards) has 5,000 electors
- Cuddington (two) has 3,476 electors
- The nine rural villages have 5,209 electors (including Acton Bridge with 519)
So, adding the nine rural villages to Weaverham gives 10,209 electors, which accords with three-member Ward size. Adding up Weaverham, Cuddington and Acton Bridge would total 8,995 which is rather too few.
The meeting fully endorsed the Parish Council's recommended alignment with Weaverham, and the rural villages to our west (Alvanley, Manley, Norley, Kingsley, Aston, Crowton, Dutton, and Sutton) but excluding Cuddington. Weaverham has our local schools, library, shops and Post Office, and there are further links such as the Cemetery Committee, and Weaverham & Acton Bridge Trust. We have also cooperated successfully in planning campaigns such as the Network Rail Substation. This amenity centre is balanced by the essentially rural character of the villages along the Weaver Valley, which is important to residents for leisure and open space as well as having its own agricultural heritage, and is of course the focus of the proposed Regional Park.
Here is the Parish Council's letter to the Boundary Committee (click images to open a .PDF file),
