By Ian Duncan

Last updated at 08:44, Tuesday, 15 January 2013

A call by Carlisle’s MP to review the ward boundaries in the city has been criticised by two of the city’s councillors.

Lee Sherriff

John Stevenson MP has written to the Local Government Boundary Commission requesting that they conduct a consultation on Carlisle City Council boundaries.

Mr Stevenson said he believed that a review of the district ward boundaries would be relatively low cost and would give those who lived in the area a chance to comment on the number of councillors in each ward.

However Lee Sherriff, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Carlisle and city councillor for Harraby, said she found it “astonishing” that the MP found it of great importance to look at the council’s boundaries.

She added: “They will be looked at anyway. We are more concerned about keeping frontline services.”

Councillor Joe Hendry, the city council’s leader, said there was a normal process to review boundaries on a regular basis.

He added: “Considering the huge challenges local governments are facing this is not the time to start making changes.”

But Mr Stevenson said such a review would make the area more democratic and save money. He added: “I believe that this is the perfect opportunity to assess the ward boundaries of Carlisle district.

“The boundary commission has recently assessed all of the boundaries for the new divisions which now make up Cumbria County Council.

“This would hopefully mean that a consultation into Carlisle city ward boundaries would be relatively straightforward, relatively low cost to the tax payer and would make local government in our area more democratic.

“Personally I would like to see a reduction in the number of councillors, further reducing the cost of local government to the tax payer.”

First published at 08:43, Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk