MENDIP’S Green party district councillors have warned that residents could be left “short-changed” by plans to cut the number of councillors in Somerset.
Currently, Somerset is served by Somerset County Council and four district councils, which amounts to over 250 councillors working across the county.
Because of work currently under way to replace the county’s five existing county and district councils with a single unitary council by April 2023, this could be slashed to 85 or fewer, according to the group of Green Party councillors.
Somerset County councillor for Frome East, Martin Dimery, has also backed the group’s concerns.
The Green Party district councillors say, “Local residents and businesses may be unaware that the Ministry for Local Government (MHCLG) has demanded cuts in the number of councillors as part of the change to unitary. Following the abolition of district councils, councillors’ numbers may fall from over 250 to 85 or fewer according to briefings.
“Elsewhere, unitary councillors deal with far fewer people in each division, but each Somerset councillor would have less opportunity to talk with their residents, act on their concerns and give them support as needed; Somerset getting short-changed by the government yet again.
“The Greens have written to the ministry, and asked the chief executives of all Somerset councils to keep things local by keeping a sensible limit on the size of divisions and the number of people each councillor has to serve.”
Cllr Michael Gay for the Greens added, “The ministry has ignored the wishes of Somerset people and now wants to cut their rights to proper representation and support. But I believe the people of Somerset want to be clearly heard and fairly treated by those making decisions in London.”
The councils have to submit a proposal for the new electoral boundaries (which will change the number of councillors) to the ministry in October, to allow for a decision to be made in time for the upcoming local elections in May 2022.
