§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list in the Official Report those districts where ward boundaries are still under review by the Local Government Boundary Commission; and if, in any of these cases, new warding arrangements might still apply for the purposes of the 1979 local elections.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe Local Government Boundary Commission for England has yet to submit reports containing final proposals for new electoral arrangements for the metropolitan and non-metropolitan disticts listed below. The commission has suspended work on all these reviews of electoral arrangements pending the outcome of its appeal against the judgment delivered in the High Court on 25th January 1978 in a case brought by the London borough of Enfield. It is not possible at this stage to say whether the commission will be able to complete any of these reviews in time for the new arrangements to come into effect for the May 1979 local government elections.
Following is the list:
Metropolitan districts
12W
- Birmingham
- Bolton
- Bradford
- Calderdale
- Coventry
- Doncaster
- Dudley
- Gateshead
- Kirklees
- Knowsley
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Rochdale
- Rotherham
- St. Helens
- Salford
- Sheffield
- South Tyneside
- Stockport
- Sunderland
- Trafford
- Wakefield
- Walsall
- Wigan
- Wirral
- Wolverhampton
Non-metropolitan districts
13W
- Arun
- Beaconsfield
- Blaby
- Breckland
- Brighton
- Bristol
- Bournemouth
- Caradon
- Charnwood
- Cheltenham
- Christchurch
- Easington
- East Cambridgeshire
- East Devon
- East Lindsey
- Exeter
- Forest Heath
- Forest of Dean
- Great Yarmouth
- Grimsby
- Hambleton
- Harborough
- Harrogate
- Hinckley and Bosworth
- Horsham
- Kingston upon Hull
- Leominster
- Leicester
- Lewes
- Lincoln
- Mid Sussex
- Newbury Northampton
- North Bedfordshire
- North Devon
- North Dorset
- North West Leicestershire
- North Wiltshire
- Plymouth
- Poole
- Portsmouth
- Reading
- Redditch
- Restormel
- Rother
- Rugby
- Ryedale
- Shepway
- Slough
- South Lakeland
- South Oxfordshire
- Stroud
- Suffolk Coastal
- Teesdale
- Tewkesbury
- The Wrekin
- Torbay
- Torridge
- Warwick
- Waveney
- Waverley
- Wealdon
- Wellingborough
- West Dorset
- West Norfolk
- West Wiltshire
- Weymouth and Portland
- Wimborne
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Wokingham
- Worthing
- Wycombe.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made on the review of local authority ward boundaries by the Local Government Boundary Commission; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe Local Government Boundary Commission for England has submitted 264 reports containing final proposals for new electoral arrangements for eight metropolitan districts, 224 non-metropolitan districts and 32 London boroughs. So far, orders have been made to implement new electoral arrangements in one metropolitan district, 193 non-metropolitan districts and 31 London boroughs.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing those districts where reviews of ward boundaries have now been completed and where the new warding will operate for the purposes of 1979 local elections, indicating the area of the district, the electorate, the number of councillors prior to the review, and the number of councillors determined as a result of the review.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe information will take a little time to produce. I shall write to the hon. Member when it has been collated.