City of York Council could be set for a shake up under a planned review of the number of its councillors and its electoral wards.
Councillors are set to consider setting up a taskforce to work on proposals following Boundary Commission for England’s (BCE) announcement of an Electoral Review for York.
A report on the review stated that it would look at York’s total number of councillors along with the size, names, boundaries and amount of members of its wards.
The first part of the review is set to look at the council’s size, or the total number of councillors that will be elected in future.
York council currently has 47 councillors with 24 members making up the ruling Labour group along which has a majority of one.
A 19-strong Liberal Democrat group is the opposition and there are three Conservatives and one independent.
Once that stage is completed work is then due to begin on reviewing the council’s 21 wards.
The council’s corporate scrutiny committee is set to decide on Monday (7 July) whether to set up a Task and Finish Group to work on the first phase.
The body, made up of two Labour, two Liberal Democrat and one Conservative councillors, would gather residents’ views and attempt to seek cross-party agreement on proposals for the council’s size.
Councillors’ community engagement, conduct, case work, their scrutiny of decision-making and governance arrangements are all set to be looked at.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) would provide demographic data with population projects up to 2031 to help with drawing up proposals.
Draft proposals are set to be brought before councillors in September for scrutiny before going to the council’s executive in early October.
The executive’s recommendations would then be put to a full council meeting currently scheduled for Thursday, October 16 and they would be submitted to BCE the following day if approved.