Cowbit Paris Council gets ok to increase membership while Holbeach Parish Council must remain the same
Changes will be made to the number of parish councillors representing two patches.
Cowbit Parsh Council will see a rise - but the numbers at Tydd St Mary are set to fall.
May’s scheduled elections will see the number of prospective candidates elected to Cowbit parish Council rise to seven.
Previously there were five seats available.
However, the numbers will also change at Tydd St Mary Parish Council where the number of seats available will drop from nine to seven.
Holbeach Parish Council will continue to have 18 representatives voted in at May’s elections. It had been previously proposed to decrease the number of parish councillors to 16.
Members of South Holland District Council agreed to these recommendations, put forward in the Community Governance Review at their Full Council meeting.
“The council has undertaken Community Governance Reviews for the parishes of Holbeach, Cowbit and Tydd St Mary to consider their electoral arrangements following requests from each parish council to make amendments to their number of councillors,” the report read.
Holbeach PC had requested numbers drop due to not having a full complement for a number of years.
Four members of the public responded to the proposal, all of them against the plan. Reasons given included allowing people in a growing town the chance to join and make a difference and reducing the council’s capability to represent constituents.
One response said it would ‘strongly object to anything that may allow the parish council to continue in its current form’ - stating they believed the parish council was ‘not reflective of the identity of Holbeach’.
One parish councillor and one district councillor were also against the proposals.
The report’s recommendation stated: “Having considered the above, with the majority of responses not being in favour of the proposal, the draft recommendation is to not make any changes and leave the number of councillors at 18.”
