Issue - meetings

To consider the recommendations of the Community Governance Review Sub-Committee in relation to the Crewe and Macclesfield Community Governance Reviews.

The minutes of the Sub-Committee’s meeting of 27^th April 2012 are attached together with a report on the Crewe Community Governance Review which was considered at that meeting.

1.      Crewe

At its meeting on 22^nd March 2012, the Committee had recommended to Council that:

§         a Crewe Parish Council should be created;

§         there should be 16 members representing 6 wards mirroring the Borough Wards;

§         the electors from the unparished part of Leighton Borough Ward should be asked whether they would prefer to be included in the proposed parish of Crewe or the existing parish of Leighton; and

§         elections should take place as soon as practicably possible.

Council at its meeting on 19^th April 2012 had deferred consideration of the recommendations of the Constitution Committee on the draft recommendation for the Crewe Community Governance Review in order that advice received from Counsel on some aspects of the Review could be taken into consideration.

The matter was considered further by the Community Governance Review Sub-Committee on 27^th April 2012 in the light of advice received from Counsel which in summary was as follows:

1.      Any reorganisation order should take effect on 1^st April in any year, including 1^st April 2013. The Order should ideally be made by 15^th October 2012 but no later than 39 days before the election.

2.      The Parish Council itself would not come into being until elections following the taking effect of the Order.

3.      There was no such legal entity as a “temporary parish council”.

4.      There was no power to set up a transitional body for a long period of time, exercising significant powers and taking decisions which would bind the new parish council.

5.      Combining parish council elections with Police and Crime Commissioner elections would seem to be administratively complex.

Having considered the advice of Counsel, the Sub-Committee confirmed its support for the original recommendations of the Constitution Committee to Council but asked that further consideration be given to budgetary and precepting arrangements and to the transitional arrangements for the period leading up to parish elections.

Since the Sub-Committee’s meeting, further advice had been sought and received from Counsel, which was briefly summarised as follows:

1.      Cheshire East Borough Council would calculate the budget for the new Parish Council, not a transitional body. The Council would specify a ceiling in respect of the sum which the Parish Council would receive.

2.      This sum would be identified in the Establishment Order.

3.      The new parish would come into effect from the date of the Order (1^st April 2013).

4.      Elections could then be held as early as 4^th April 2013.

5.      The Parish Council would fix its precept at some point prior to October 2013; this could not exceed the sum specified in the Order.

6.      The Council Tax payers of the unparished area of Crewe would then receive bills in respect of the Parish Council’s precept.

7.      Although any transitional body would have the task of “laying the ground” for a new Parish Council, as the new Parish Council could be elected on 4^th April, there would be little point  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62