Fylde could lose a third of its councillors

Members of Fylde Council’s Finance and Democracy Committee this week approved a move to reduce the number of elected members in the borough from 51 to 37.

The proposal, now subject to final approval in a year’s time, forms part of a Local Government Boundary Review which was triggered in Fylde because of electoral inequality resulting from residential development and population growth in particular areas.

At a meeting of the Committee in September, it was agreed to establish a cross-party working group of members in order that a submission could be prepared for the Local Government Boundary Committee with respect to the council size.

Fylde Council leader Coun Karen Buckley, who chaired the working group stated: “It was clear from the outset of the review that 51 councillors for a district council the size of Fylde is out of kilter with other similar authorities and we need to slim down.

“Councillors are local people who want to give back to their community and bring about improvements for residents. Most of them responded to a survey as part of this exercise and said that their council work took up more time than they expected when they first stood for office.

“Reducing the council size will increase their workload further and so it was necessary to review how we organise the committees to streamline the structure where possible.

“The committee system will remain but be modernised to merge the four programme committees – tourism and leisure; operational management; environment, health and housing and finance and democracy into one policy committee which will meet more often.

“We have also decided to bring scrutiny back so members can get under the skin of decision-making to aid transparency and accountability.

“Their being 37 members would give every councillor the ability to sit on two committees each in theory.

“This has the advantage of giving a clear signal to those standing for office in the future of the expectation in terms of their input in the decision-making process.

“Reduced numbers and a streamlined committee system will move decisions along quicker and scrutiny will improve the quality of those decisions.”

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