Commentary on Sections Part 7: Mergers and Restructuring Of Principal Areas Chapter 2: Restructuring of Principal Areas Section 132 – Restructuring regulations which provide for part of a principal area to become part of another existing principal area
578.If restructuring regulations include provision which effectively transfers a part or parts of the principal area under consideration to another existing principal area, the regulations must include the provision set out in subsection (1) of this section.
579.Subsection (1)(d) requires the regulations to provide that the voting system to be used in the first ordinary elections following the transfer date is to be that which is used for elections to the principal council of the area to which the part or parts of the abolished council were transferred. In other words, there will be no change of voting system in a principal area to which a part of an abolished principal area is added.
580.Subsection (2) lists the matters which may be included in restructuring regulations involving the transfer of part or parts of the area under consideration to another existing principal area. The inclusion in restructuring regulations of the matters listed in subsection (2) will depend on the circumstances of the restructuring. They may include the re-assignment of councillors for a transferred area to the council of the receiving principal area; this would allow the transferred area to be represented on the council of the receiving area until the next ordinary elections, by which time there will have been time for a review of the electoral arrangements of the enlarged receiving area (see section 138 and Schedule 1).
581.Subsections (2)(b) to (h) enable restructuring regulations to make provision about a range of issues concerned with elections, executives, terms of office and remuneration in restructuring councils.
582.Restructuring councils are the council under consideration and those councils which will receive part of the area of that council or be merged with part or all of that area.
583.It may be necessary, for example, to cancel ordinary elections in the area being abolished, postpone ordinary elections in one or more of the receiving areas and extend the terms of councillors serving on the councils. If a council being abolished has a directly elected mayor it may be necessary to extend their term of office to end on the transfer date; if a receiving council has a directly elected mayor, it may be necessary to re-define the area of their jurisdiction to accommodate the new parts of the council area and it may also be appropriate to consider the remuneration arrangements of elected members in the councils.
584.It may also be appropriate in some circumstances to change the name and status of a receiving area to also acknowledge the name and status of the area from which the incoming part was transferred (as to which, see subsection (2)(i) and (j)).