Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

I have received the following from the WC solicitor.

Dear Cllr Clark, Thank you for your e-mail to which Andrew Kerr has asked me to respond.

The position remains as set out in our response to Dr Murrison dated 12 January, which was copied to you. The relevant text is included below for convenience.

Dear Dr Murrison, Thank you for your email below.

Ian Gibbons (Director Legal and Democratic Services) and John Watling (Head of Electoral Services) were invited to the December meeting of Parish and Town Clerks. This was hosted at County Hall to discuss the agenda item raised by some parishes concerning Governance Reviews.

A number of parishes (for which read “parishes” and “towns”) had made ad hoc requests and comments over the years regarding parish boundaries and electoral arrangements and the matter was on the agenda, at the parishes’ request, to get a feel for when, or if, Wiltshire Council would be undertaking such a review.

The meeting was advised there were no plans for any sort of review, not least because the unitary divisions had only just been implemented; the same Electoral Commission Order had established town ward boundaries for 2013 and beyond; a major parish review had cumulated in the 2009 North Wiltshire Parishes Order in the north of the county. Against that background, it was unlikely there would be enormous interest in further reviews until at least after the 2013 elections, but there may be isolated pockets of anomalies to look at before then.

Certainly, no widespread Governance Review of the county would be considered. Even so, the present budgetary and staffing situation meant it most unlikely that resources would be devoted to any review before mid 2011, if then. The question of interest and allocation of resources would need to be agreed by Cabinet and Council, and Mr Gibbons stressed the May meeting would be the earliest he would consider asking members for their thoughts on the desirability and timing of undertaking a review.

At the end of the discussion before Christmas, Trowbridge, Devizes and Warminster indicated there were, in their opinion, outstanding anomalies and felt it would be helpful to air these with officers separately. These meetings were held, at officer level, last week and this, and any thoughts arising, will be fed in to any report to be placed before members on the desirability for any future reviews.

Contrary to a number of newspaper and e-mail contentions, there are no finite proposals on anybody’s table, and the matter (i.e. whether a review should be initiated, not the validity of any proposals) will be a matter for Cabinet and Council to consider first.

I hope this explanation is useful to you in answering any queries on this matter.

Yours sincerely, Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive.