independent Cornish news and comment

Does One Cornwall need more councillors? Cllr David Whalley thinks not...

The new council for Cornwall is on course to start in less than a year. Much of the work in setting up the council is going smoothly with councillors and officers from the seven existing councils working closely together.


Elections for councillors to the new council will be in 2009. This will probably be in May 2009 but there is some talk of the Government delaying the elections until June to coincide with the elections for the EU parliament.

As part of the process of preparing for those elections the Boundary Committee for England is currently undertaking an independent review of the wards for those elections. As you can imagine there is considerable debate in political circles especially about the number of councillors that should be elected to sit on this new council. As chairman of the 24 councillors charged with overseeing the development of the new council I have to respect the decisions made by that group of councillors. I also have my personal views on matters such as this. In this instance I feel strongly that the views expressed by councillors are not in the best interests of Cornwall. I am therefore writing to you into express my personal views, not those of the majority of councillors.

I have been involved in politics in Cornwall for over 30 years. During that time I have been fortunate to be elected as a town councillor, a district councillor and a county councillor. It is a privilege and an honour to represent the people of one’s own area. There is, however, a significant difference in the role of a councillor on each of those councils.

As a councillor my role is to represent my community and to make the best possible decisions on behalf of my community. As a Cornwall County Councillor that means making decisions on behalf of the residents of Bude, Stratton and surrounding areas, who elected me, but also making reasonable and sensible decisions on behalf of every resident of Cornwall. My decisions need to be fair and based on firm evidence. As I have discovered, I need to know and understand the needs of residents in every community in Cornwall. In doing so I am also in a stronger position to argue for fairness in my own area. Sometimes councillors see their role as predominantly within their own area alone. This is reasonable when making local decisions, but fails to take sufficient account of strategic decisions.

One of the key reasons for setting up a new single council for Cornwall has been to give Cornwall a stronger voice in the national arena. Our geographical isolation and our need to ensure that Cornwall prospers economically means we need to be heard nationally. Making those important decisions that affect everyone in Cornwall is vital to the long term success of Cornwall.

Cornwall needs councillors who are able to argue for Cornwall nationally whilst also making the right decisions locally. Local decisions should be made locally. That is why we have a network of committed and dedicated parish and town councillors.
From experience I know that the vast majority of councillors from all political views, work hard for their community. But ask councillors how many councillors there should be and the majority will vote for an increased number. In 2003 the Boundary Committee undertook a review of the boundaries for Cornwall County Council. At that time I was a lone voice arguing in favour of a smaller number. In the end the size of Cornwall County Council increased. I still believe that this was a move in the wrong direction.

This year there is a widely held view from sitting councillors that the size of the new council should be greatly increased. The generally accepted view is that there should be about 130 councillors. A council of that size ignores the very valuable work of the parish and district councillors in the 209 councils throughout Cornwall.

In recent weeks I have been talking to people who are not councillors. Most would like to see a smaller number, rather than an increase in the number of councillors. More councillors means more money on councillors’ pay and more meetings. People I speak to want a council where good decisions are made efficiently and effectively.

In Cornwall we already have over 2,000 parish and town councillors on 209 councils. This is soon to increase when the St Austell area gets parish councils. Many of these councils are keen and anxious to play a greater role in their communities. We should be allowing them to do that. Local councils know and understand the needs of their immediate area.

I accept that the new council will need to take responsibilities from the six district councils and the county council. That will increase the workload. But the answer is not to increase the number of councillors to do things in the same way, it should be to do things differently. I believe passionately in democracy. Democracy is not simply about number of councillors; it is about making sure we have the right people representing us.

I believe that the headlong rush to make a mammoth council of 130 councillors is a bad decision. It is wrong for the new council and wrong for Cornwall. It would leave the new council with by far the largest number of councillors of any council in the country. There are very few councils with over 100 councillors and these are largely ineffective. The most effective councils are smaller and more efficient.

Submissions can be made to the Boundary Committee for England by any group or individual. There is little time for these submissions to be made. As a resident of Cornwall I will certainly be putting my views to the boundary Committee. I hope that as many electors as possible will make their views heard. It is important to hear from those outside the current political systems in Cornwall.
Councillor David Whalley