Boundary Commission for England

The Boundary Commission for England have drawn up new boundaries for the seats at Westminster and these changes shall take effect at the next General Election.  The northern part of the present Rayleigh Constituency, the area within Chelmsford Borough Council, will move to a new seat to be named Maldon.  The bulk of the town of Wickford will move from Billericay into the present Rayleigh constituency and it will be re-named Rayleigh and Wickford.  In addition, a small part of Hawkwell South ward of Rochford District Council which is presently in Rochford and Southend East constituency will come into Rayleigh and Wickford. 

 While the Members of Parliament continue to represent the electors in the constituencies which were in place at the 2005 General Election,the Conservative Party has established new Associations to reflect the changes which will come into effect at the next General Election,due to be held no later than mid June 2010

 This is why we now have Rayleigh and Wickford Association albeit Mark Francois is still the Member of Parliament for Rayleigh.

Local Government Finance Settlement Released

The Government today announced the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for the three years from 2008/09.  Initial indications from the Comprehensive Spending Review were that the increase in overall funding for local government would be 3.8% in the first year followed by 2.8% then finally 2.6% in 2010/11.  However the grant that Rochford District Council will receive is an increase of 2.2% per annum. Councillor Keith Hudson, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Council, said: “This is clearly a blow to the Council. We are already a low cost authority and at a time of rising costs and demand for more services, rather than less, the Government has done us no favours. The Rochford District public need to know how they are being short changed by this Government. I predict we will have real difficulty in keeping the Council Tax down, particularly when other cost pressures such as the Government’s national concessionary fares scheme have yet to be finalised. That is unlikely to be fully funded and again the impact will be on Rochford District residents.”