By Maria Zaccaro, Local Democracy Reporter
Southampton councillors have unanimously backed plans for a new ward for city.
At a Southampton City Council (SCC) meeting on Monday (Oct 11) councillors were asked to put forward their preferred options and decide whether to increase the number of councillors by three or six.
They backed proposals to increase the number of councillors from 48 to 51 and to create the 17th ward in the city.
Cllr Satvir Kaur (Lab), leader of the opposition, descried the review as “a big deal”.
She said: “It will require all of us to work together and find a compromise where we can.”
Talking about the plans to increase the number of councillors by three she added: “It is a fair and reasonable compromise to reach.”
Councillors also agreed to maintain the current electoral cycle of elections by thirds, when there are elections in three years out of every four.
A review will be now carried out by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, and a public consultation is then expected to take place between November 23 and January 31, 2022.
The final changes that will be agreed after public consultations are set to be implemented in May 2023 following an all-out election.
Earlier this year the commission said it would review wards in Southampton “to ensure that councillors represent about the same number of people across the city”.
A document published by the city council revealed that when comparing Southampton to similar local authorities, the city is the second smallest in terms of council size.
“For these reasons it is not recommended that the council size reduces below existing levels (48 councillors and 16 wards)”, it said.
Boundaries in Southampton were last reviewed 20 years ago.
Further details on the decision are here [SCC pdf]
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