Issue - meetings

Councillor Patel proposed and Councillor Brown seconded the report which sought approval from Council for the draft ward pattern to be submitted to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Council was asked to note that the report made recommendations to the Local Government

Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) on ward boundaries and names of wards.

Members made comments as follows:

·       The report presented was not the work of the Task and Finish Group; it was suggested that there was a lack of collaboration in some areas.

·       The 78 Member submission was not discussed at the Task and Finish Group.

·       A number of wards were not considered “community based” but rather a number-driven exercise.

·       It was explained that the Monitoring Officer could make changes in order to give effect to anything agreed by Council, to ensure that the report reflected what was agreed by Members.

·       The Task and Finish Group made no recommendations; the draft report that went to the Democracy and Standards Committee was not approved. The report before Members today was only published on 3^rd November, this was the first time that any Member of the Council had seen it.

·       Wards should reflect existing communities and not socially engineered new wards.

·       The 78 Member submission was more equally representative in the west of the area.

·       It was felt that local government reorganisation had already been forced upon residents of West Northamptonshire, that a submission that no Members could agree on was a concern.

·       Members and residents were urged to respond to the forthcoming consultation by the Boundary Review.

RESOLVED:

1)    Council:

a)    Noted the work of the cross-party working group and the Democracy and Standards Committee on the second phase of electoral arrangements for West Northamptonshire;

b)    Approved the document set out at Appendix A of the report for submission to the LGBCE; and

c)     Delegated authority to the Director of Legal and Democratic Services in consultation with the Chair of the Democracy and Standards Committee to make any minor amendments to the wording of the proposed submission to the LGBCE and to finalise the submission in light of any comments from Council and any minor or typographical changes identified.