The Royal Borough has agreed to take the next steps in an electoral review that could see the number of councillors reduced by a quarter.
Council approved the recommendations of a cross-party working group on Tuesday 27 June to look at reducing the number of councillors from 57 to 43 (plus or minus one). The group also recommended that the number of council panels could be streamlined from 44 to 32.
The report on the first stage of this two stage process will now be submitted to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) for their approval before the second stage can begin in the autumn.
It is expected that the final outcome will be in place in time for the next local elections in May 2019.
Cllr Simon Dudley, leader of the council, said: “We are making good progress in this electoral review and I am pleased that the recommendations of the cross-party working group have been approved.
“At a time when we are looking to deliver excellent services that offer residents value for money we as elected members should not be exempt and I welcome this opportunity to streamline our democracy while ensuring there will be no loss of oversight or scrutiny through these changes.”
Council first requested an electoral review in September 2016. In April 2017 a cross-party working group was established with councillors and officers to oversee the review.
The process is split into two stages and the second and final stage will take place between September 2017 and April 2018 including public consultation and work to determine how the proposed number of councillors would be distributed.
The last time an electoral review was made of the Royal Borough was in 2001 when the LGBCE recommended the current allocations.
Since then the borough’s population has risen by around 10,000 and five wards are currently identified as being imbalanced in the number of electors per councillor.
Future planned developments throughout the borough, particularly in Maidenhead, would further exaggerate these imbalances.
There are currently 57 councillors split across 23 wards giving the Royal Borough the lowest average electors to councillor ratio in Berkshire of 1,952 per elected member. The Berkshire average is 2,226 and the highest in the county is 2,365.