TOWN councillors of Bude-Stratton were asked to submit their comments in regards to the electoral review of Cornwall Council — the consultation period finishes this month.

Cllr Peter Moores, mayor and chair of the meeting, explained to his peers that the Local Government Boundary Commssion for England (LGBCE) is reviewing Cornwall Council’s number of councillors and divisions, proposing that the 123 current councillors are reduced to 87. This will also mean changing the boundaries of each division, which was up for discussion at the meeting of full council on January 4.

The meeting heard that Bude is a dual member ward, with Cllr Nigel Pearce and Cllr Peter La Broy as this ward’s representatives. Stratton is currently represented by Cllr Paula Dolphin. Councillors heard that Cornwall Council is ‘keen to retain its networks’ through community network panels.

Cllr La Broy, also on the town council, said: “The future is in the investment of community networks.”

Cllr Moores presented a map of the Bude-Stratton boundary to the meeting. He said: “This means that it is to be increased slightly to include two parishes, to make up the right numbers for Grenville and Stratton.

“It’s a bit of a nightmare, really. The downside is that they could start taking away parts of Stratton or Bude.”

Cllr La Broy said: “The northern and southern bits are to be represented by one councillor. We could go for a triple member ward for the community network — that’s an alternative.”

Any changes will not come into effect until the 2021 Cornwall Council elections. The review is looking at four main aspects — the number of members elected to the council, the number and boundaries of future electoral divisions, the number of councillors representing each electoral division and the name of each division. According to information on the Cornwall Council website, the aim of the electoral review is to ‘deliver electoral equality’ by ensuring that ‘all councillors represent a similar number of voters’.

On December 7, a public consultation event took place at Launceston Town Hall to focus on the Launceston, Bude and Camelford community networks. The LGBCE’s announcement on May 13, 2017, stating that Cornwall Council should have 87 councillors in future, began the first consultation period of the divisions, which will run until February 19.

While Cllr Lea Deely reminded her peers that she ‘understood this would not affect the parish boundaries’, the meeting heard that the key criteria is to deliver ‘electoral equality’, Bude’s demographic of where people come from to use the town’s services. The town council’s responsible finance officer, Keith Cornwell, said: “There is no direct suggestion that this will affect the parish boundaries.”

Cllr Paul Tilzey proposed putting forward Cllr La Broy’s suggestion of a triple member ward, saying: “I propose we go off what Peter said. We should go for what we want.”

Cllr Frank Partridge seconded this proposal.