10th July 2017

By Graham Smith

Although Cornwall Council has yet to publish any maps outlining its own suggestion of revised ward boundaries, analysis of the council's 19 Community Network Areas (CNAs) reveals how current methodology will scrap 36 councillors.

Five CNAs will see their councillors reduced in number by 40% - making them 11% more likely than average to lose their jobs.  Some councillors are twice as likely as others to be abolished.

The top five "most at risk" CNAs are Caradon, Launceston, Wadebridge & Padstow, St Agnes & Perranporth and St Blazey, Fowey & Lostwithiel.  This is because they would not have enough voters to justify their number of councillors, compared with more highly populated areas.

A few councillors currently have ward boundaries which overlap, so they appear in more than one CNA, but the method is the one currently favoured by council officials for getting them close to the Boundary Commission target.

Caradon

Clockwise from top: Dorothy Kirk, Jesse Foot, Sharon Daw, Jim Flashman and Andrew Long.  Two will have to go.

Launceston

From top: Adam Paynter, Jade Farrington, Neil Burden, Gemma Massey and Adrian Parsons.  Two of these will have to go.

Wadebridge & Padstow

Five into three won't go - so two of these face the chop.  From left: Steve Knightley, Stephen Rushworth, Richard Buscombe, Karen McHugh, Carol Mould

St Agnes & Perranporth

Another five-member CNA which will become three: from left, Pete Mitchell, Mike Eathorne Gibbons, Michael Callan, Adrian Harvey and Joyce Duffin

St Blazey, Fowey & Lostwithiel

Five become three: clockwise from top, Colin Martin, Pauline Giles, Jordan Rowse, Andy Virr, Sally-Ann Saunders

Cornwall Gateway

This CNA faces a 37% reduction in councillor numbers, so three of these face the chop.  L-R from top: John Crago, George Trubody, Derek Holley, Sheila Lennox-Boyd, Hilary Frank, Sam Tamlin, Jesse Foot and Gary Davis.

Liskeard & Looe

Liskeard & Looe CNA faces a 37% reduction, losing three of these.  L-R from top: Sally Hawken, Nick Craker, Jane Pascoe, Armand Toms, Edwina Hannaford, Phil Seeva, Martin Eddy and Richard Pugh

Camelford

Clockwise from top: Rob Rotchell, Barry Jordan and Dominic Fairman.  A 33% cut in this CNA means one of them would have to go.

Hayle & St Ives

L-R: John Pollard, Andrew Mitchell, Graham Coad, Linda Taylor, Col Richard Robinson and Lionel Pascoe.  A 33% cut means two of them will have to go.

China Clay

Clockwise from top: Dick Cole, Fred Greenslade, Sally-Ann Saunders, John Wood, Matthew Luke and Mike McLening.  A 33% cut means two of these face abolition.

Councillors stand a much better chance of survival if they are in a "low risk" area.  The Truro & Roseland Community Network Area needs only a 20% cut to reach the Boundary Commission target.

Truro & Roseland

L-R from top: Dulcie Tudor, Bob Egerton, Julian German, Rob Nolan, Loic Rich, David Harris, Bert Biscoe, Mike Eathorne-Gibbons, Martyn Alvey and (r) John Dyer.  Eight of these should survive the cull.

Falmouth & Penryn

The Falmouth & Penryn CNA needs only a 22% cut - compared with a 29% Cornwall average - and so seven of these should survive.  L-R from top: Alan Jewell, Candy Atherton, John Bastin, David Saunby, John Symons, Geoffrey Evans, Peter Williams, Mary May and Mathew McCarthy (no picture).

Bodmin

Bodmin faces a 25% cut, from four to three.  From top: Pat Rogerson, Jacquie Gammon, Chris Batters.  No picture of Leigh Frost.

Bude

Bude faces a 25% cut, so one of these will have to go.  Clockwise from top: Peter La Broy, Paula Dolphin, Nigel Pearce and Nicky Chopak 

Newquay & St Columb

Clockwise from top: Geoff Brown, Joanna Kenny, Olly Monk, Kevin Towill, John Fitter,  Paul Wills and Paul Summers.  A 28% cut in this CNA allocation means two of them will have to go.

St Austell & Mevagissey

Clockwise from top: Tom French, Malcolm Brown, Jackie Bull, Cherilyn Williams, Sandra Heyward, Richard Pears and James Mustoe.  The proposed 29% cut is average for Cornwall and would mean the loss of two councillors.

Camborne, Pool, Illogan & Redruth

L-R from top: John Herd, Paul White, Jeff Collins, David Atherfold, David Biggs, Mark Kaczmarek, Robert Hendry, David Ekinsmyth, John Thomas, Joyce Duffin, Philip Desmonde, Barbara Ellenbroek, Stephen Barnes and Ian Thomas.  This large CNA would lose four of its councillors.

Helston & South Kerrier

Clockwise from top: John Keeling, Loveday Jenkin, Andrew Wallis, Julian Rand, John Martin, Carolyn Rule and Mike Thomas. A 29% cut would mean the loss of two councillors from this CNA.

West Penwith

L-R from top: Tim Dwelly, Sue Nicholas, Mario Fonk, Jim McKenna, Cornelius Olivier, Helen Hawkins, Simon Elliott, Roger Harding and (r) Sue James.  A 33% cut in this CNA means three of these would be abolished.

Cornwall Council's Electoral Review Panel meets tomorrow (Tuesday) to consider how to respond to the Boundary Commission recommendation of an 87-member council.

Prior to the 4th May council elections, the council's position was that 99 members were the minimum needed and some councillors see the proposed reduction as an assault on democracy.  But others - including the Commission itself - believe the essential question is to decide what the council is actually for.

The 123-member council, established in 2009, has for eight years presided over a series of cuts, privatisations and outsourcing which has seen its own directly-employed workforce slashed.  The council is continuing to promote a "Devolution Agenda" which is transferring responsibility for services to town and parish councils.

Tomorrow's meeting aims to produce a recommended number which will then be further considered at a meeting of the full council later this month.

As Cornwall Reports revealed yesterday (Sunday), the requirement to produce council wards in which "all votes count the same" will disproportionately cut the number of seats currently held by the Liberal Democrats, whose representation currently tends to be concentrated in the more sparsely populated north and east of Cornwall.