Statutory reviews

Boundary Changes

2023 UK Parliamentary Boundary Review

The Boundary Commission for England has commenced its review of parliamentary constituencies in England, in accordance with the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (as amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 and Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020).

The Boundary Commission for England has now published its initial proposal for new constituency boundaries, increasing the number of constituencies in England from 533 to 543 and has published the comments to the initial proposal and the comments received from the secondary consultation period on their website. You can also view the public hearings on the proposals here BCE Northampton Public Hearings. The revised proposals are now available to view on Boundary Commissions website. This is the final part of the consultation which closes on the 5 December.

You can find more details on the Boundary Commission website.

The timeline for this review is as follows:

• 8 June 2021: Publish initial proposals and conduct an eight-week written consultation
• Early 2022: Publish responses to initial proposals and conduct six-week ‘secondary consultation’, including between two and five public hearings in each region
• Late 2022: Publish revised proposals and conduct a four-week written consultation
• June 2023: Submit and publish final report and recommendations

Local Government Boundary Changes

The Local Government Boundary Commission was set up to carry out reviews of local authority electoral arrangements. It also has a role in reviewing local government structure and boundaries and carrying out parish reviews.

The electoral arrangements for the county were reviewed between 2011 and 2013. The wards for West Northamptonshire are the same as that of the Northamptonshire County Council divisions. For further information see the Local Government Boundary Review for England website.

The structure of West Northamptonshire Council is currently under review and the public consultation will begin from August 2022 until April 2023. The new boundaries will take effect at the next set of elections in 2025. 

Community governance reviews

Community governance reviews (CGR) are carried out by principal councils to put in place or make changes to local community (parish) governance arrangements. CGR’s can be initiated by a

• valid petition from electors
• formal request from a parish council or a local member
• decision taken by the principal council itself if it feels a review is appropriate

Any petition must define the area to which the review is to relate, specify one or more recommendations which the petitioners wish that CGR to consider making and be signed by the following number of local government electors:

• less than 500 electors: 50% of the electors
• 500 - 2,499 electors: At least 250 of the electors
• more than 2,500: At least 10% of the electors

A CGR can consider several issues, including whether to:

• create a new parish whether to alter the boundary of an existing parish
• group several parishes together in a grouped parish council

The most recent reviews in West Northamptonshire took place between 2018 and 2020 on the unparished areas of Northampton Borough, Daventry and South Northamptonshire. These reviews were undertaken by the previous borough councils as part of the reform of local government in Northamptonshire. Results of the reviews can be seen below.

Polling districts, places and station review

Daventry District Council, Northampton Borough Council and South Northamptonshire Councils carried out a review of polling districts, places and stations in 2019. The purpose of the review was to try to ensure that electors have reasonable facilities for voting and that they are accessible for everyone with a disability, if practicable.

Under electoral legislation, we must complete a review of all polling districts and polling places every four years. After each election we also review the staff and elector feedback of the location of polling stations to ensure that the premises we use have good access for all electors. The next scheduled review of polling districts and places is expected to take place in 2023.

The councils were required by law to carry out this review.

Last updated 11 November 2022