In 2021, the County Council, the districts and boroughs in our area were abolished. A new unitary council, North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) was created. (West Northamptonshire Council was created in the west of the county.)
That process continued for several years, and in 2024, new wards were created for NNC. As an unfortunate side-effect, the wards for the town councils were mangled.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) recommended a local boundary review, or “Community Governance Review” (CGR) to fix the bad parish/town boundaries.
A CGR was indeed started. Various proposals were made to fix the parish and town boundaries. The most extensive were for Rushden Town Council (RTC), where it was proposed to split in half the three giant wards (Pemberton, Rushden Lakes and Rushden South).
The new RTC wards will be Bates, Sartoris, Hayden, and Spencer, plus shrunk versions of Pemberton and Rushden Lakes. This will reinstate Rushden’s historic ward names.
The CGR proposals went out to consultation, and comments by members of the public were invited. The consultation process ended on the 4th of October.
The final proposals will now go to NNC’s Democracy and Standards Committee on the 12th of November. Assuming that they are accepted, they will then go to NNC’s Full Council on the 26th of November.
The wards and boundaries will take effect when the town/parish councils are re-elected in May 2029.