“The Local Government Boundary Commission is currently reviewing the ward boundaries for Bucks Council and the number of councillors per ward.
The proposal issued by the Commission creates a joint Gerrards Cross, Denham, Hedgerley and Fulmer ward represented by three councillors. However, most worryingly for Gerrards Cross, the part of our town north of the Ethorpe Hotel is removed from this ward and added onto a ward predominantly consisting of Chalfont St Peter. This means those residents in that area (now referred to as ‘Gerrards Cross Station’) would be represented by councillors mostly elected by residents in Chalfont St Peter. This goes against the general principle followed in most other towns and villages of keeping them together and not having them split between different Bucks Council wards. Please refer to the following link which shows the map for this: https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lgbce/Reviews/South%20East/Buckinghamshire/Bucks/Draft/Gerrards%20Cross.pdf
The Town Council has issued the following response to the proposal:
Gerrards Cross Town Council strongly objects to the creation of the newly formed Gerrards Cross Station parish ward and it being put into a separate unitary ward with Chalfont St Peter.
The proposals for Buckinghamshire have generally kept parishes together in unitary wards, as acknowledged in the explanatory notes. We welcome Gerrards Cross East now being part of the same ward as the rest of Gerrards Cross, and also South Beaconsfield now going back to Beaconsfield unitary ward. This will make things simpler for residents and councillors.
However, it is proposed that the existing Gerrards Cross North parish ward is divided between two separate unitary wards. This will cause confusion for residents in the Gerrards Cross Station part who will assume they are represented by the ‘main’ Gerrards Cross unitary councillors. This often happened with the old arrangement of Gerrards Cross East being combined with Denham.
There should be other ways to make the numbers work for Chalfont St Peter’s unitary ward and this should be revisited. Putting part of Gerrards Cross into Chalfont St Peter’s unitary ward is illogical, because if anything people in the Austenwood area often assume they are living in Gerrards Cross (as can be seen from postal addresses).
Therefore the Town Council urges the Commission to bring back ‘Gerrards Cross Station’ into the new Gerrards Cross & Denham unitary ward.
This will also avoid splitting the existing Gerrards Cross North ward into two wards for town council purposes. The current arrangement of town council wards in Gerrards Cross works well and should not be tampered with.
We would request residents to write in to the Local Government Boundary Commission using the following link to express their views on the proposal: https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/have-your-say/29857
Please note there is a deadline of 5th December 2022 to respond and this is a separate consultation from the Parliamentary constituencies one (further details of which are on a separate page on our website).”