Chorley is set to see boundary changes for its existing seven County Councillors in a county-wide shake up of Divisions aimed at ironing out electoral inequality. Without action, new developments across Chorley would lead to one County Councillor in the largest Division having 5,000 more electors than that of the smallest Division.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England is charged with creating new Divisions as close to the county-wide average electorate as possible whilst taking into account natural community links wherever possible. It is projected that by June 2021 the average number of electors in a Division will be 11,083 per councillor.
Locally, Chorley North has a electoral variance of +37% - the highest in Lancashire, Chorley West +20% and Chorley Rural East +19%, whilst the other four Chorley Divisions are within the range -8% to +6%. We expect that Chorley could get an extra County Councillor to address the inequality.
The LGBCE has now opened their consultation through these links:
Lancashire County Council Consultation
Useful Documents and timetable
Lancashire County Have your say
Draft recommendations will be published on 17th November 2015 for further consultation, and elections held on the new boundaries in May 2017.