But I still think Preston can be reduced in size with the creation of more boroughs rather than increasing it.

I agree that single member wards is hard to balalnce if you have elections by thirds (paradoxically I also tend to favour that, although I realsie its not ideal to have both). Nevertheless, we largely have it in Stoke now and people previously said it couldn’t be done.

Actually, the new Stoke wards make a LOT more sense than the old ones, and I would suggest that by-and-large they are superior in terms of local community representation.

On the wider issue – I would love to see a wholesale relaunch of all local government in this country. Scrap two-tier government, it just doesn’t work and is far too restrictive and expensive. The boundaries of the 60s and 70s no longer fit – “Preston” is much larger ”in real life” than the authority boundaries would have an outsider believe.

I get the impression we agree on the topic if not the details

But I’m very much against reducing the size of local councils on the boundaries as they exist now. Wards must be SMALLER and more representative of local people, not more remote and less representative.

It’s broadly using the existing County Council wards and reduces the size of Town hall from 57 to 36 in one swipe of a pen. I make it Labour 16, Con 15, LD 5 on current figures….

I’ve read no update from this whole affair so I assume he is still Independent for the time being. He is up for election in 2012, which might change matters, of course.

Due to the tight constraints of the legislation, our proposals essentially recreate the 1997-2010 version of Preston, but it’s a little bigger and has a new name – “Preston South”.

We consider that the Commission’s proposal to strip Fishwick from Preston is completely unworkable.

For those who like this sort of thing, our counter-proposal for Preston South is made from :
Preston Wards – Lea, Larches, Ashton, Tulketh, Riversway, University, Fishwick, Moor Park, St Matthews, St Georges, Deepdale, Town Centre
South Ribble Wards – all of Bamber Bridge, all of Walton-le-Dale, Samlesbury, Lostock Hall, Tardy Gate, Coupe Green, Middleforth
Chorley Ward – Brindle and Houghton

Julian Amery was the son of Leo Amery, who made the famous speech as a result of which Neville Chamberlain had to resign. He was also the brother of John Amery, who was executed in 1945 after pleading guilty to treason. See wikipedia for more information about this.

Also, a belated response to JDave01 about the Riversway by-election. There was discussion on this thread about the Greens in relation to a previous council by-election. It appears that the Greens in this area are tending to concentrate on Lancaster, which is one of their stronger prospects, and where they have several councillors. But Preston does have its Green issues, and as a reasonably sized town, sorry, city (but where’s the cathedral?!) is the sort of place where one imagines they could build up prospects. A young Green activitist could make a name for himself or herself if prepared to persevere. Perhaps the first priority is that there are four years to find the money for a parliamentary campaign, to recruit some members, and to persuade the Green Party to agree to a candidate. Good luck to the candidate in Riversway if he tries to have a go at this!

Is Ron Atkins still a councillor? I’ve just looked up the Preston Council website and couldn’t find him.