HAMBLETON has led the way in carrying out radical surgery to the way local councils work. The shared services initiative with Richmondshire has shown how neighbouring councils can work together while protecting frontline services and making significant savings.

Now attention has turned to the number of councillors, and rightly so. If every area of council activity is being scrutinised to find savings there is no reason why the democratic arrangements should be excluded. The shape of the council – its wards, boundaries and the number of members representing each one – dates from the local government re-organisation in 1974 and that was a different world both in terms of the state of public purse and way councils operated.

The role of the councillor has changed. For most, there is less time spent sitting in the council chamber. They are meant to spend more time in their communities, representing their electorate effectively.

But some of Hambleton’s single member wards are tiny with electorates of just 1,400. There’s a obvious opportunity to amalgamate some wards and cut the number of members in the larger ones.

Would democracy be harmed by reducing the number of councillors? More would be expected of them certainly, but taxpayers would not argue with that.