Changing and unchanging – just the wrong way round
How councillors on Somerset Council changed their story. Local democracy is suddenly unfashionable. But some things that they should have changed, have been left stubbornly the same!
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Changing and unchanging – just the wrong way round
Collective amnesia
The Boundary Commission has launched a consultation to ask if the number of councillors at Somerset Council is the right number. Specifically they want to know if you feel the number should be reduced from the current 110 to 96.
As the Somerset unitary council was created on 1 April 2023, the Boundary Commission would automatically want to hold a review to find out how the new arrangements were working out.
So far it has been an interesting exercise. Mainly because it appears that many, if not all, Somerset Councillors have engaged in an act of collective amnesia. Which is why we need to start this piece with a reminder.
A bit of history
As debates raged across 2020 and 2021 over the future form that local government might take in Somerset, The Leveller reported extensively on the issue.
Two options were put forward, “One Somerset” by the county council and “Stronger Somerset” by the four districts.
One Somerset was, in a nutshell, was all about saving money on back office (one accounting function stead of five for instance) functions to reinvest in front line services. It proposed 110 councillors.
Whatever your views on One Somerset, at least one could say that the methodology for defining the boundaries of the divisions for the 110 councillors proposed was elegantly simple. There would be 2 councillors in each of the 55 old Somerset County Council divisions (like a constituency). No need for any redesigns or a boundary commission exercise to redraw electoral divisions.
Stronger Somerset, the model proposed by the districts was all about local accountability. Having two unitary authorities instead of one, and East Somerset and West Somerset unitary.
It posited that having more councillors was better for democracy and meant local government would be closer to the people. More democratic accountability they proclaimed.
Whilst The Leveller openly campaigned for the One Somerset model (which was eventually chosen by the government) it also gave interviews to all political parties and leading supporters for the two models proposed. So lots of their views are on the record.
There was absolute clarity throughout, that Labour, Greens and LibDems all supported the idea of Stronger Somerset on the basis that it would keep more councillors and be better for local democracy.
Speaking to Wells City Council in May 2021 Cllr Ros Wyke explained: “Splitting it into East and West provides the area will give us a responsive organisation which better represents the electorate, it will give a larger proportion of Councillors to the electorate.”
