| Sheffield Ward Boundary Review 2013 |
| MDFS::maps.Sheffield.lgbr2013.2Member | Search |
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| Two-member wardsPrior to this review metropolitican authorities were required to have wards each with three elected members. I pointed out in my submission in 2002 that the South and West Yorkshire metropolitan councils had large rural areas where the requirement to use 3-member wards forced the drawing of some very contrived ward boundaries, such as Stocksbridge and Upper Don in Sheffield. An option to use 2-member wards in rural areas would introduce a useful flexibility in creating wards that best fitted the community geography and made for efficient and effective representation.The recent Local Government Act has removed the requirement for metropolitan councils to use 3-member wards, allowing this flexibility. Theoretically, 2-member and 1-member wards could be used anywhere in the council area, but I strongly believe that multi-member council wards create the most efficient and effective representation of the local area, and that 3-member wards should remain the predomanent system, with 2-member wards an option for rural areas where the population is in communities scattered across the geography. Any two 3-member wards can be paired and replaced by three 2-member wards. Rural.gif is a map I drafted for the 2002 review showing how the four parish area wards could be simply replaced by six 2-member wards, having the additional advantage that Stocksbridge Town Council returns to being co-terminus with its city council ward. |
