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Local Government: Stoke-on-Trent

My right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government (Rosie Winterton) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. On 8 May, my right honourable friend the then Minister for Local Government announced to the House that, as part of a programme of action to help the people of Stoke-on-Trent to restore to the city good city governance, the Government were minded to make an order under Section 86 of the Local Government Act 2000 specifying a scheme of whole-council elections from 2011. He also announced that, to enable the focus of all to be on this 2011 new start, and while an electoral review is being undertaken, the Government were minded to include in the order provision to cancel the 2010 elections for the city council. He explained that before taking final decisions there would be a short soundings period until 18 June to provide an opportunity for interested parties to make representations to us. That soundings period is now complete and I am today announcing that, having regard to the representations that we have received, we have decided to go ahead with a scheme of whole-council elections for Stoke-on-Trent City Council from 2011. We intend to lay the necessary order before Parliament as soon as practicable. We have, however, concluded that there is not a sufficiently strong case for cancelling the 2010 elections for the city council and hence the order will not include provision to cancel these elections. We reached these conclusions having regard to the 11 representations that we received during the soundings period. There was broad support for whole-council elections, but a number of concerns were raised about cancelling the 2010 elections to the city council, including from the Electoral Commission, which considered that on the available evidence a clear case for cancelling the elections had not been made. In his 8 May announcement, my right honourable friend also indicated that he was asking the Electoral Commission to undertake an electoral review of Stoke-on-Trent, which would consider the size of the council and the warding arrangements for the city. The Electoral Commission has now directed the Boundary Committee to undertake this review, which we understand will begin shortly. We are confident that these measures to reform the electoral arrangements of Stoke-on-Trent will help to provide for the people of Stoke-on-Trent the opportunity that they need to achieve that well governed city, with high-quality public services, successful economic regeneration and improved quality of life, which they deserve.