POWYS county councillors will soon find out exactly the make-up of their ward boundaries for the 2022 council elections.

The Local Democracy and Boundary Commission final recommendations are due to be published early in 2019.

And in their draft report, they recommend the authority shrinks from 73 to 68 members, which would be a saving of £68,000 a year.

A spokesman told the Local Democracy Service that the final proposals could be expected as early as February.

Commission chairman Owen Watkin said: “In working up our proposals, we have considered local ties and those who wish to retain current boundaries.

“We have looked carefully at every representation made to us.

“However we need to balance these issues and representations against all other factors we have to consider, and the constraints, in particular, the requirement for electoral parity.

“Democratic fairness for all electors, is the dominant factor in law and this is what we have tried to apply.”

The proposals include: taking member numbers down from 73 to 68; a reduction in electoral wards from 73 to 60; having seven multi-member wards, six of which would be two-member wards (including joining Llanidloes with Llangurig); and having an average of 1,569 voters per councillor.

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