Periodic Electoral Review of Worcestershire County Council

District and County electoral arrangements: In 2003 the Boundary Committee for England (BCE) completed  the electoral reviews for Redditch, Worcester, Wyre Forest, Bromsgrove, Malvern Hills and Wychavon district councils. The aim of the reviews was to ensure that, as far as possible within each district, one person's vote should have the same value as another's without disrupting community identities. The outcome of those reviews have been implemented by the relevant District Councils.

Following the reviews of the district councils a review of Worcestershire County Council has been carried out. The new district ward structures were used as the building blocks for the review of the County Council electoral arrangements, based upon the electoral data contained in the published December 2002 Electoral Register and a electorate forecast up to 2007. The review started on 11 March, 2003 (this was a revised date as the original intention was to start the review on 2 December, 2002) and progressed through the various stages involved.

The BCE completed its final stage in September, 2004, and presented final recommendations to the Electoral Commission for approval. After a six week period of consultation the Electoral Commission decided on 9 December, 2004 to approve the final recommendations without modification. An Order to create the future County Council electoral arrangements was made on 10 February, 2005. In summary this means that for the election on 5 May, 2005 the Council will be made up of 57 councillors. However, there will only be 52 electoral divisions. This means that five divisions (all those in Redditch plus Stourport-on-Severn) will have two councillors to represent each electoral division. Each of the remaining 47 electoral divisions will be represented by one councillor. For further details about the 5 May election please follow the menu link to County Elections.

General information and guidance about the purpose and outcome of the Worcestershire periodic electoral review can be found via the Boundary Committee's website www.boundarycommittee.org.uk.. A copy of the final Order and supporting maps are listed below. The full guidance about how a review should be undertaken is available if you click here  (841.45 KB)

Matters taken into account during the Worcestershire review:

• That the BCE and its predecessor had endeavored to apply consistency across the 400 reviews that had already been undertaken. All schemes must be supported by evidence, reasoned argument and preferably presented with consensus agreement.
• The process no longer required the review to be approved by the Secretary of State. The Order emanating from reviews was the responsibility of a specific implementation team and ultimately the final decision was a matter for the Electoral Commission.
• The county review started on 11 March, 2003 and finished in February, 2005 with the making of the Order.
• The December 2002 Register of Electors was used as the baseline for electorate data, together with a forecast up to 2007.
• A critical success factor involved an early assessment of Council size in the light of any new management arrangements and the modernization of the Council’s constitution. This was initially the first important local focus of the review before any  analysis of electorate equality moved on.
• The primary purpose of the review was to achieve electoral equality having regard to the other statutory criteria. The normal tolerance allowed within a division was up to +/- 10% variation – nil variation being the ideal. This primary objective was to be checked against the statutory criteria, especially the need for coterminous and identifiable boundaries.
• The normal expectation was to achieve between 60 – 80% coterminosity between electoral divisions, district wards and parish boundaries. The average level of coterminosity of other county councils reviewed previously was 70%.
• Some appropriately evidenced trade off between electoral equality and the need for coterminous boundaries could be considered in a minority of cases.
• The new District Council ward structures when implemented by Order were used as the building blocks on which to model the new electoral divisions.
• To be acceptable any scheme had to be fully evidenced and supported by public/ community opinion. Special emphasis was placed upon the need for appropriate public involvement and consultation.
• Although it was feasible for the Council/others to draw up a scheme that included a two member division(s) it was very unlikely to be accepted, and if so only very exceptionally.
• The completion of the review within the timetable would enable the new divisions to be used for the Council elections in 2005.
• The issue regarding councillor related workload imbalances due to the geographical size of some rural divisions was not a matter that the BCE are empowered to take into account in their assessment.

Review Final Recommendations

Report  (1.30 MB)

Maps

• Sheet 1  (1.05 MB) - All Electoral Divisions
• Sheet 2  (4.44 MB) - Worcester City Electoral Divisions (Map 1)
• Sheet 3  (4.28 MB) - Kidderminster Electoral Divisions (Map 2)
• Sheet 4  (4.33 MB) - Droitwich (Map 3) and Evesham (Map 4) Electoral Divisions

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The Electoral Commission's website is www.electoralcommission.org.uk..