Community governance review

With a population of over 32,000 Lichfield City Council is one of the largest parish councils in England. The Council has 28 members elected to representing 9 Wards.

Consultation response

Some responses express support for the status quo in Lichfield City while a number express concern about unequal councillor-to-resident ratio in some wards.

The City Council representation proposed that: ‘Garrick Road ward to be incorporated into Chadsmead, Burton Old Road ward into Stowe and Pentire Road ward into Boley Park, thereby creating coterminous parish and district boundaries and removing the significant confusion that exists currently.’

It also requested: ‘When assessing future options, LDC is asked to have regard to the current unequal allocation of councillors which results in a significant variation in the ratio of electors to councillors across Lichfield City Council wards.’

Recommendations 

• Garrick Road Ward be incorporated into Chadsmead Ward. Chadsmead Ward to comprise 4 Councillors
• Burton Old Road Ward be incorporated into Stowe Ward. Stowe Ward to comprise 5 Councillors
• Pentire Road Ward be incorporated into Boley Park Ward. Boley Park Ward to comprise 4 Councillors
• Curborough Ward be increased to 4 councillors
• St Johns Ward to remain at 6 councillors
• Leomansley Ward be increased to 6 councillors

The recommendations contribute towards effective and convenient local governance

Reasons

The recommendations address two key issues raised in the consultation: 

• The creation of coterminous parish and district boundaries satisfying the criteria of effective and convenient governance. The amalgamation of small single councillor wards into larger wards is not considered to have any detrimental impact on community identity or cohesion, indeed the larger wards would appear to represent more identifiable and coherent communities.
• The uneven distribution of Councillors ranging from 302 Councillors per Councillor to 1124 electors per Councillor.