Conservatives fail to block East Herts Council shake-up of Sawbridgeworth and Buntingford town councils

Parish councils in East Herts are set for a shake-up under plans approved by the district council, despite opposition to changes for Sawbridgeworth and Buntingford.

The reforms include introducing wards for both town councils, where members are currently elected on a whole-town basis.

East Herts’ Cllr Joe Thomas (Lib Dem, Watton-at-Stone) chaired a community governance review working group that recommended the changes.

He 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”.

Some of the reforms were opposed by the Conservative group at an East Herts Council meeting on July 23, when amendments were put forward to block the Buntingford and Sawbridgeworth changes.

Cllr Angus Parsad-Wyatt (Con, Sawbridgeworth) argued that the proposals would “worsen electoral representation in Sawbridgeworth” and lead to “unequal influence” between the wards.

The 12-member town council will be split into four wards, with one councillor for Spellbrook, two for Central, four for West and five for South.

Cllr Parsad-Wyatt said it would result in 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 Sawbridgeworth town councils objected to the proposals, which, subject to a final reorganisation order, will come into effect ahead of the May 2027 local 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 by Cllr Terry Smith (Reform UK, Braughing & Standon), who said he could not see “any logical reason for warding”.

However, district councillors voted to go ahead with the proposals.

The leader of the council, Cllr Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford Bengeo), said that they would be “a positive thing for residents” while party colleague Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward (Green, Hertford Kingsmead) said warding would give a “much better local focus” at the 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,” she said.

“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 (Lab, Bishop’s Stortford Central), part of 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.

Its 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 would 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 Stevenage.

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 was hard to say “today” whether the new development could sustain a council.

Other changes to be made include: the number of councillors on Hertingfordbury Parish Council cut to nine from 10; Buckland Parish Council to be renamed Buckland and Chipping Parish Council; and Stapleford Parish Council to be renamed Stapleford and Waterford Parish Council.