By John Baron
City councillors will next week debate proposals to create an additional two electoral wards for Horsforth Town Council.
All 98 councillors are due to attend a full meeting of Leeds City Council on Wednesday, 9 September at Leeds Civic Hall – and included on the agenda is a community governance review of Horsforth Town Council.
The proposals, which can be seen in the table below, include the creation of two new wards -Broadgate & Drury Lane and Horsforth Vale – which would be situated within the existing town council boundary.
The move would lead to an increase in wards from five to seven, with the number of town councillors remaining the same at 22.
Horsforth Town Council originally proposed the addition of one ward when they submitted their review in 2024.
Chair of Horsforth Town Council, Councillor Simon Dowling, said: “As a Town Council, we requested a review of the ward boundaries with the aim of improving representation for residents across Horsforth.
“The proposals put forward by Leeds City Council’s Corporate Governance Committee were considered by our Finance and General Purposes Committee in July.
“The proposal recommends the creation of two additional wards. However, one of these would be represented by just a single Town Councillor. As a council, we did not support this element of the proposal. We felt that having a single-member ward could create difficulties around councillor availability, particularly during periods of absence, and could place undue pressure and responsibility on one individual.
“Our preference is for a warding arrangement that provides residents across Horsforth with effective, accessible and resilient representation.”
The Town Council has asked Horsforth’s Leeds city councillors Emmie Bromley, John Garvani and Ray Jones to propose an amendment that aligns more closely with the council’s original submission.
The Town Council’s preferred warding arrangement is:
The number of town councillors would remain the same at 22. Town councillors are unpaid volunteers.
A report to full council can be read in full here.