Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relevant to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

There were no members of the public present.

To consider a report on the Parliamentary Boundary Review and the revised proposals for the North West.

That:

1.    approval be given to the detail of the Council’s response to the Parliamentary Boundary Review consultation concerning revised proposals for the North West;

and

2.    officers be authorised to make the submission by the required deadline. 

Revised proposals for new Constituency Boundaries for the North West were published by the Boundary Commission for England on 17 October 2017 and interested parties and individuals have the opportunity to respond to these proposals by 11 December 2017. 

The current recommendation is in response to a consultation by the Boundary Commission for England to which the Council responded in December 2016 regarding their initial proposals for new parliamentary constituency boundaries. 

The number of constituencies in the North West is being reduced by 7 to 68. The criteria imposed on the Boundary Commission are for the electorate of each constituency to be in a range of 71,031 to 78,507.  These limits on the size of the electorate are much narrower than at present and impose serious limitations on alternative configurations. 

Following the consultation in December 2016 the composition of 25 of the 68 constituencies that had been proposed in September 2016 have now been amended. It is recognised that there is no perfect solution which would see all Cheshire East Constituencies wholly contained within the Borough.  Two cross-county constituencies have been proposed which contain electors from both Cheshire East and Greater Manchester.  One combines the towns of Altrincham and Knutsford and the other combines the town of Wilmslow and the Stockport Borough suburb of Hazel Grove.

A paper was circulated at the meeting giving the proposed response for each constituency, and a copy of this has been added to the website. 

RESOLVED

That:

1.    approval be given to the detail of the Council’s response to the Parliamentary Boundary Review consultation concerning revised proposals for the North West; and

2.    officers be authorised to make the submission by the required deadline.