Colchester City Council will discuss at its Full Council meeting on 7 December how many councillors it should have, as part of the first stage of a statutory Local Government Boundary Commission for England Review.
The Boundary Commission is the independent body that reviews the number of councillors and ward boundaries. As the number of residents in Colchester changes it must make sure each councillor represents about the same number of electors, and those ward arrangements help the council work effectively.
Cllr David King, Colchester City Council Leader, said: “It is important that Councillors play their part to ensure our electoral arrangements reflect our growing communities.
“We will keep residents up to date as we progress, and to encourage them to have their say on the Commission’s proposals. They will be consulting upon between June 2024 and January 2025, before the final decisions in are published in April 2025.”
This discussion at Full Council is the first stage of the Electoral Review process, which takes around a year and includes at least two phases of public consultation on proposals. The next stage is for the council to send evidence-based reports to the Commission that detail the current and predicted growth of Colchester's population to 2030. The Commission will then put its proposal together on new Ward boundaries for Colchester.
Residents and local organisations will be able to have their say and feedback on those proposals through a public consultation that will run in June 2024. The Commission will then publish its final recommendations in April 2025.
The timeline for the Boundary Commission Electoral Review is:
- June 2024: Electoral Commission Consultation on warding patterns
- November 2024: Electoral Commission Consultation on Draft Recommendations
- April 2025: Electoral Commission final recommendations published
Page last reviewed: 29 November 2023