Third of Stafford councillors facing the chop

The number of members on Stafford Borough Council would be cut from 59 to 40, as part of the proposals, which have been drawn up following a review.

It could mean a shake-up of the borough's ward boundaries if approved.

The move would help save cash but council chief Mike Heenan today said cost-cutting was not the main driving force behind the idea.

"The number of things the council deals with has reduced over recent times, particularly with the housing function transferring to Stafford and Rural Homes," he said.

"The actual business of the council is less, which has raised the question of do we still need 59 councillors?"

He said reducing the number of councillors by 19 would also help make 'considerable savings'.

"If you look around, a lot of other councils have done this and we're not the first by any means to look at reducing the number of councillors," Councillor Heenan added.

He said much work had been carried out to determine what would be a suitable number, taking into account workloads, geographical areas and population.

Forty councillors is a 'sufficient' amount to run the local authority, a report claims.

Councillor Heenan, leader of the ruling Conservative group, added: "This has the support of the controlling group and it will be for the other political groups and the public to put forward their views too.

"We're not going down to a ridiculously low number, we're respecting the fact we're a large borough."

Expenditure on members was £111,000 in 1999/2000 and reached a high of £382,000 in 2008/09 before falling back to £375,000 in 2010/11.

Councillor William Kemp, leader of the Labour group, said members agreed a reduction was necessary but added they felt the plans went too far.

A special meeting is being held over the plans tonight at 7pm.