Somerset County Council Electoral Review – from County Councillor Cathy Bakewell

In June 2012, the Local Government Boundary Commission published their review of the electoral arrangements for the Somerset County Council. They reduced the number of Councillors from 59 to 55. The average number of electorates in each division will rise from 7,615 in 2011 to 8,137 by 2017. No account was taken of any proposed developments in any area unless a planning application had actually been submitted. In the Coker division, pleas for the inclusion of the Wraxhill part of East Coker civil parish and the Sampsons Wood part of the West Coker civil parish to be included in the county division were ignored. The Commissioners visited the area and felt both areas “clearly form part of the urban Yeovil”. This view had been strongly expressed by Yeovil Town Council during this review and the previous review. This may have implications when the Town Council electoral boundaries are next reviewed. There is no prospect of this in the immediate future, but it is something to watch. The new Coker County division now includes the villages of Montacute and Norton-sub-Hamdon. This brings the number of electors up from 7739 in 2011 to 7807 in 2017 which is a -4% variance from the average.