THIS week’s election represented a major change to the way councillors are elected to Oxfordshire County Council.

Following a review by the Local Government Boundary Commission the number of seats on the county council had been cut from 74 to 63.

These councillors will represent 61 new divisions, many of which are different from their predecessors.

For example, St Margaret’s in Oxford is formed of parts of the former West Central Oxford and surrounding areas. Most divisions now only have one councillor but two – Thame and Chinnor, and Grove and Wantage – are represented by two.

The aim of an electoral review is to make sure each councillor represents roughly the same number of electors while also taking into account community identity.

According to the report published by the Local Government Boundary Commission the review was sparked after it emerged that the old Witney East division had 35 per cent more electors that the average for the county.

The report said: “The total electorate of the county is 493,161 in 2011 and is forecast to be 524,740 by December 2016.

“In seeking to achieve electoral fairness, we calculate the average number of electors per councillor.”

The average number of electors per councillor under the commission’s draft recommendations is 7,828 in 2011 and 8,329 by 2016.