Local ballot will decide 4Wards Community Council Campaign

Three Rivers District Council will ballot residents to gauge a preference for or against a new Parish Council, after the local authority received a petition for an increase in the current number of Parish Councils in the Three Rivers District.  The petition calls for the setting up of a ‘Community Council’ (the same as a parish council, just a different name) in the area of Three Rivers which is currently not covered by an existing parish council.

The Regulatory Services Committee (ratified by Council) have agreed to a review of the proposals in the petition, this is called a Community Governance Review, and a Councillors’ Working Party has been set up to conduct the review.  First of all, the Working Party completed a consultation on the Terms of Reference for the Review, to see if there were any local concerns with the areas in question.

The review will cover the unparished areas of:

• Moor Park & Eastbury,
• Rickmansworth Town,
• Penn & Mill End,
• Chorleywood South & Maple Cross, and
• Chorleywood North & Sarratt

In order to give everyone a fair chance to respond, the Council have decided to ballot every elector in the areas covered by the review – 16,000 residents.  The ballot will be carried out by Electoral Reform Services, a completely independent organisation which has over 100 years of experience of similar ballots. You will receive a ballot paper in the post, on or about the 27 June 2016.  Please complete the ballot paper and return in the self-addressed envelope.  The ballot closes at noon on 15th July 2016.

The ballot will help to inform the review, but it is not the deciding factor in the review.  The Council has set a minimum turnout for the ballot at 10%.  If the turnout is lower than this, the results may not be considered.  We will also analyse the results in as much detail as possible to discover how people have voted in each area.  This may also provide information as to the views of local people. Most importantly, it falls to Three Rivers District Council to make any further decisions.  If a community/parish council is the preferred option then Three Rivers District Council must also decide on the name, the area it will cover, the number of councillors and the location of the community/parish council offices.