Town councils set for shake-up despite Buntingford and Sawbridgeworth opposition
The changes were approved at a full council meeting last month
Town and parish councils in East Herts are set for a shake-up under plans approved by the district council, despite opposition from some councillors to changes coming to Buntingford and Sawbridgeworth.
The reforms include introducing wards for Buntingford and Sawbridgeworth Town Councils, where councillors are currently elected on a whole-town basis.
East Herts Cllr Joe Thomas (Liberal Democrat, Watton-at-Stone), who chaired a community governance review working group that recommended the changes, said the proposals, which also include boundary changes in several parts of the district, would “serve our communities better, well into the future”.
He said the working group, set up last year, had been tasked “with the democratic equivalent of untangling fairy lights, except these particular lights had been accumulating knots since the Poor Laws and everyone has a strong opinion about which bulb should go where”.
But some of the proposed reforms met with opposition from the Conservative group at a council meeting on Wednesday, July 23, with amendments put forward to block the Buntingford and Sawbridgeworth changes.
Cllr Angus Parsad-Wyatt (Conservative, Sawbridgeworth) argued that the proposals would “worsen electoral representation in Sawbridgeworth” and lead to “unequal influence” between the wards.
The town council in Sawbridgeworth will be split into four wards, with each ward having a different number of councillors (one for Spellbrook, two for Central, four for West and five for South). Cllr Parsad-Wyatt said it would lead to Spellbrook having one councillor to represent 174 electors, while another ward would have a single councillor for every 730 electors.
Buntingford Town Council, meanwhile, will be split into two wards, north and south, with the B1038 acting as the dividing line. Each ward will have six councillors.
Conservative Cllr Aubrey Holt (The Mundens) suggested the plan represented “a generic governance structure that is being pushed onto what is our smallest town in Hertfordshire”.
“It is clear that Buntingford itself doesn’t want this change,” he said.
“The system in Buntingford works. The community is united. The council functions well. So why change something that isn’t broken?”
Both Buntingford and Sawbridge Town Councils objected to the proposals, which, subject to a final reorganisation order, will come into effect ahead of the May 2027 town council elections.
The plans were also opposed by Cllr David Woollcombe (Green, Buntingford), who said it was “another slap in the face to the people of Buntingford”, and Cllr Tery Smith (Reform UK, Braughing & Standon), who said he couldn’t see “any logical reason for warding”.
But, at the district council’s meeting on July 23, councillors voted to go ahead with the proposals.
The leader of the council, Cllr Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford Bengeo), said that they will be “a positive thing for residents”, while Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward (Green, Hertford Kingsmead) said warding would give a “much better local focus” at town council level.
Cllr Sue Nicholls (Green, Buntingford) said she was “strongly in favour” of warding Buntingford.
“The town has within it areas of distinct character, and the proposed ward boundary takes into consideration the location of the two large planning-approved sites for houses.
“I have had no negative feedback from my conversations with residents and my posts on social media about the warding of the town.
“Residents can only benefit from a named councillor who they can approach with specific issues relevant to their local neighbourhood.”
Cllr David Jacobs (Labour, Bishop’s Stortford Central), who sat on the working group, said he had been unable to find any town councils of a similar size to Buntingford or Sawbridgeworth that did not have warding.
He added: “If the people of Buntingford are so overwhelmingly against this proposal, and I don’t believe they are, why did we only receive three responses to the consultation?”
Other planned changes were passed more smoothly, including a change of boundaries for Bishop’s Stortford Town Council.
The southern boundary will be extended to run along the A1184 St James’ Way, parallel to Thorley Street, to ensure that the 750-home St James’ Park development will be included within Bishop’s Stortford. Homes on Thorley Street will remain in Thorley parish.
Cllr Thomas said the changes in Bishop’s Stortford will ensure “new communities have effective representation where it makes most sense, while respecting the historic differences of Thorley”.
A decision has not yet been made, though, on future governance for the 610-home Hazel Park development in Aston, near Walkern.
A final decision will be made next year, when a new review will consider whether the development should have its own community council. Cllr Thomas said it is hard to say “today” whether the new development could sustain its own council.
Other changes to be made include:
Number of councillors on Hertingfordbury Parish Council cut to nine from ten
Buckland Parish Council to be renamed BUckland and Chipping Parish Council
Stapleford Parish Council to be renamed Stapleford and Waterford Parish Council