The Local Government Boundary Commission is consulting the public on its draft plan for the revision of political wards in Coventry.
The Commission is recommending the retention of eighteen wards in the city with three councillors per ward, and the total number of councillors remaining as 54.
The Commission is charged with evening out the number of voters in each ward. All wards should have within 10% of the average number of voters.
The projected number of voters in 2029 is 249,249 making an average of 4616 voters per councillor and 13,848 voters per ward.
In addition, the Commissioners are seeking to have boundaries that seem appropriate to local communities and make sense on the ground.
The proposals leave three wards unchanged. These are Longford, Foleshill and Binley and Willenhall. All other wards have some boundary changes and two wards have name changes. Holbrook ward will become what most people call it already, “Holbrooks”. The revised Westwood ward will in future be known as “Tile Hill and Canley”.
The commissioners discuss in detail the comments and recommendations made at the previous consultation. These were mostly made by political parties and players and the commissioners particularly want residents affected by the changes to respond to the consultation.
The change to ward boundaries also impacts on parish councils. The Commission has no mandate to change parish boundaries, but if its proposals result in a parish council being split between two or more wards, then the parish must also be divided into parish wards and it must recommend the number of parish councillors that should represent each parish ward.
This will have a significant impact on Allesley parish. The parish currently has eight councillors and will be split between Woodlands and Bablake wards. All of the Eastern Green SUE (Sustainable Urban Extension) is located within Allesley parish and the Commission are proposing that there will be six councillors from the SUE and only two from the part of the parish that is in Bablake ward.
The current boundary of Allesley parish does not include Allesley village. The consultation points out the council has powers to conduct community governance reviews to effect changes to parish electoral arrangements.
The consultation started on 31st October and runs until 22nd January 2024. You are recommended to read the proposals before making comment.