§ 30. Dr. Edmund Marshallasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department for which English counties he expects the county council elections in May 1981 to be conducted on the basis of new electoral arrangements.
§ Mr. BrittanThe elections of May 1981 will be held on the basis of new arrangements in Cheshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Stafford-shire and Surrey and, subject to what is said below, in those counties awaiting electoral arrangements orders for which we have already received, or expect to have received by 19 December, a report from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England; namely, Avon, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Durham, Essex, Hampshire Humberside, Kent, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Wiltshire. If by 15 January it appears that we shall not be able to make an order by 6 February for a county for which the commission has submitted its proposals to my right hon. Friend, we shall discuss with the council concerned when its new arrangements should come into effect.