Councs Phill Bettington, Liz Harvey and Peter Watts, Ledbury Ward, Herefordshire Council say don’t overstep the town boundaries (From Hereford Times)

Councs Phill Bettington, Liz Harvey and Peter Watts, Ledbury Ward, Herefordshire Council say don’t overstep the town boundaries

3:00pm Saturday 18th August 2012 in Letters

AS THE three Herefordshire councillors for the multi-member Ledbury ward we write to express our deep concern at the proposal to split Ledbury into three single-councillor wards which is being recommended to the Boundary Commission by Herefordshire Council .

We strongly believe that Ledbury is a community in the round and believe that the proposed three-way split will produce arbitrary miniwards with no community identity of their own, splitting streets down the middle and contravening the guidelines set down for the review at its outset.

It will fail to provide balanced wards in terms of elector numbers without presuming significant development on the viaduct site, despite this currently sitting outside of adopted planning frameworks. It reduces the effectiveness and convenience of residents’ representation by preventing ward members from specialising in particular areas of council operation and removing residents’ choice concerning which councillor to approach with their problems.

The ability to retain multimember wards was promised by Herefordshire Council at the outset of the current Boundary Commission review and has now been withdrawn without good reason.

The public consultation on ward boundary changes only runs until August 28. We strongly urge residents of the Ledbury ward to get in touch with us for more information on what is proposed and how to object. Call Phill Bettington on 633297, Liz Harvey on 07909 753259 or Peter Watts on 632161.

Please help us to fight this every step of the way. Don’t let Herefordshire Council break up our town.

COUNCILLORS PHILL BETTINGTON, LIZ HARVEY AND PETER WATTS, Ledbury Ward, Herefordshire Council.