North Norfolk people to be represented by fewer than 15 Councillors under Boundary Committee proposals for 'regional' local government in Norfolk

North Norfolk District Council is surprised and concerned by the Boundary Committee's proposals announced today for a single unitary authority for Norfolk plus Lowestoft.

"If this proposal comes into effect it will mean that the people of North Norfolk will be represented by just 15 Councillors; currently there are 48 District Councillors and 11 County Councillors. This would be a travesty of local democracy, even more unrepresentative than any of the original submissions to the Boundary Committee and it flies in the face of everything that the Government has been saying about the engagement of local communities," said Councillor Virginia Gay, Leader of North Norfolk District Council.

There are also concerns about the sheer size of the proposed authority; with over 900,000 people it will be far larger than any of the recently created unitary authorities.

"The Government itself (Population Size and Local Authority Performance - Communities and Local Government, October 2006) has said that once a local authority has a population of over 500,000 its performance starts to decline and yet the Boundary Committee is proposing something almost twice as large. So not only would this be bad for democracy, it makes no real sense as far as efficiency is concerned, either. In fact the whole proposal lacks logical argument.

"We will need to consider the proposal very carefully. In our response we will be doing all that we can to make sure that the interests of the people of North Norfolk and their particular issues and concerns will have a strong voice in any new authority. Nothing is binding as yet. There is now a period of consultation to the end of September and we will be talking to our partner authorities and local people before we respond formally. On behalf of the people of North Norfolk and the county as a whole, we are certainly very unhappy with what we have seen up to now," said Councillor Gay.

The full draft proposals can be viewed at:
www.electoralcommission.org.uk/boundary-reviews/all-reviews/eastern/norfolk/norfolk-structural-review

ENDS