Community Governance Review

In January 2022 the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) published the results of its electoral review of the Derbyshire Dales.

The electoral review examined and proposed new electoral arrangements for the District by determining:

• How many councillors are needed.
• How many wards or electoral divisions there should be, where their boundaries are and what they should be called.
• How many councillors should represent each ward or division

In their final report the LGBCE recommended that the Derbyshire Dales should be represented by 34 councillors, five fewer than there are now with 21 wards, four fewer than there are now. They also recommended that the boundaries of 17 wards should change, with just 3 remaining the same.

In most cases the proposed ward boundaries are conterminous with existing Parish/Town Council boundaries with the exception of wards for Darley Dale and Matlock. To address this the LGBCE has made the following changes to the electoral arrangements in these parishes:

• Matlock Town Council – 11 Councillors representing 8 wards, reducing the number of Councillors for the Hurst Farm Ward to 1 and creating a new Cuckoostone Ward with 1 Councillor.
• Darley Dale Town Council – 12 Councillors representing 3 wards, reducing the number of Councillors for the Darley Dale South Ward to 4 and creating a Morledge Ward with 1 Councillor.
• Including the new Cuckoostone Town Council Ward in the District Council Ward of Matlock East & Tansley.
• Including the new Morledge Ward in the District Council Ward of Matlock West (The other two Town Council Wards are in the District Council Ward of Darley Dale)
• Moving the parish ward of Oker and Snitterton Ward into the new District Council Ward of Matlock West with the other two wards remaining together in the new District Council Ward of Bonsall and Winster.
• Incorporating the Parish of Northwood and Tinkersley in the new Darley Dale Ward.

As part of an electoral review, the Commission are required to have regard to the statutory criteria set out in Schedule 2 to the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (the 2009 Act). The Schedule provides that if a parish is to be divided between different district council wards it must also be divided into parish wards, so that each parish ward lies wholly within a single ward. This has resulted in changes to the warding arrangements for the Town Councils of Matlock and Darley Dale as set out above. The Parish of South Darley was already warded.

Under the 2009 Act the Commission only has the power to make changes to parish electoral arrangements where these are as a direct consequence of their recommendations for principal authority warding arrangements. They therefore cannot make changes to the external boundaries of parishes as part of an electoral review. However, Derbyshire Dales District Council has powers under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 to conduct community governance reviews to effect changes to parish electoral arrangements.

The Council is therefore carrying out this Community Governance review to seek the views of local residents and stakeholders on whether there is support for a proposal to change the boundaries and/or warding arrangements of the three Parish/Town Councils affected by the revised District Council warding arrangements for Matlock.

Supporting Documents