Electoral Review of Cheshire East Council

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England is an independent body responsible for determining the electoral arrangements of local authorities across England. The Commission reviews these electoral arrangements when certain criteria are met, such as ‘electoral equality’ (the average number of electors per councillor) varying too much within a local authority. Since the Commission last completed a review of Cheshire East (in 2011), major changes in housing and population have resulted in some councillors representing many more electors than other councillors do. The resulting decline in electoral equality led to the Commission announcing, in 2023, a new review of the Borough’s electoral arrangements.

In January 2024, the Commission recommended that Cheshire East should in future have 82 councillors, the same number as now. At the same time, the Commission began a public consultation on warding arrangements for Cheshire East, inviting views from the Borough Council, town/ parish councils, local residents, community groups and other interested parties on where ward boundaries should be drawn, how many councillors should represent each ward, and what these wards should be called. This consultation stage - which was widely publicised by the Borough Council through a press release and elsewhere - closed on 1 April 2024.

The Council’s Corporate Policy Committee appointed the Electoral and Polling District Review Sub-Committee to make recommendations upon all matters relating to the review. These recommendations were considered by the Corporate Policy Committee, prior to the Committee making recommendations to Full Council. On 27 February 2024, Full Council approved the Borough Council’s response to the Commission's first public consultation stage (on warding arragements and commision). This response was submitted in March 2024 and can be found below:

• The main warding proposal report (PDF, 899KB)
• Appendix A – Maps of the proposed wards (PDF, 22.1MB), which includes detailed maps for each of the proposed wards and an overview map of the proposed ward boundaries for the Borough as a whole. 

At the start of October 2024, the Commission published its Draft Recommendations for Cheshire East and held a public consultation on these proposals. The Sub-Committee considered these proposals and then determined the Council’s response, which was submitted to the Commission in early December. This response to the second public consultation stage can be found below:

• The main consultation response document (PDF, 653KB)
• Annex A – detailed maps (to which the main submission document refers) (PDF, 5.4MB)
• Annex B – Knutsford Town Council Community Governance Review proposals (to which the main submission document refers) (PDF, 8.6KB)

The commission then plans to publish its Final Recommendations in May 2025, with the recommended new arrangements coming into effect in time for the next round of local elections in May 2027.

Further information about the review can be found on the Commission’s dedicated Cheshire East review page.