Agenda and minutes

Community Governance Review Sub-Committee - Thursday, 22nd November, 2012 11.00 am

Venue: West Committee Room - Municipal Buildings, Earle Street, Crewe, CW1 2BJ. View directions

Contact: Paul Mountford Democratic Services Officer

Items
No.	Item
62.	Declarations of Interest View the background to item 62. To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest.
63.	Public Speaking Time/Open Session View the background to item 63. 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 meeting. 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. Minutes: There were no members of the public present.
64.	Minutes of Previous meeting PDF 56 KB View the background to item 64. To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4^th September 2012. Minutes: RESOLVED That the minutes of the meeting of 4^th September 2012 be approved as a correct record.
65.	Re-Organisation of Community Governance (Crewe) Order 2012 and Mini Review of Electoral Arrangements for the Parish of Leighton PDF 72 KB View the background to item 65. To review the electoral arrangements for the Parish of Leighton, arising from the proposed boundary change to the Leighton Urban Ward. Additional documents: Mini Review of Leighton - Appendix (draft order) , item 65. PDF 74 KB Mini Review of Leighton - Appendix (map) , item 65. PDF 3 MB Minutes: The Sub-Committee considered a report on the outcome of the mini-review for the Parish of Leighton. Council at its meeting held on 11^th October 2012 had agreed that the draft re-organisation of Community Governance (Crewe) Order 2012 be updated as required and submitted to Council on 13^th December for approval following a mini-review of the electoral arrangements for the Parish of Leighton arising from the proposed boundary change to the Leighton Urban Ward. Paragraph 10 of the Order related to the area of Leighton parish and stated: ”The area of the Leighton parish shall be varied to include within the Leighton Urban Ward of that parish the unparished part of the borough ward of Leighton (polling district 1FJ4) as indicated by the red line on the map.” The Sub-Committee was asked to consider advice from the Boundary Commission that it was the usual practice for alterations to parish boundaries to co-incide with the parish council elections. In the case of Leighton Parish, 407 electors would be added to the Leighton Urban Ward as a result of the re-organisation order, which meant that those electors would be required to pay a parish precept for two years, without having had a vote on who was representing them, as the next ordinary elections were not scheduled until May 2015. There are 8 seats for the Leighton Urban Ward (Leighton Parish), only 3 of which had been filled by election on 5 May 2011. There were 4 seats currently vacant. The Grouped Parish Council had a total of 22 seats. Minshull Vernon and District Parish Council had been consulted on the proposed boundary change and at a meeting on 12 September 2012 had agreed its support of the proposal that the unparished area comprising polling district 1FJ4 form part of the existing Leighton Parish (Leighton Urban ward). On 24^th September, the Parish Council had considered the current level of elector representation and the potential impact of 407 additional electors being added as part of the Crewe Community Governance Review. The Grouped Parish Council was of the view that no additional representation, over and above the current 22 parish councillors, was required. Members of the Grouped Parish Council had also discussed the possibility of elections in the Leighton Urban Ward in April 2013 and had asked the parish clerk to convey their hope that the cost of such an election would not be passed on to the Parish Council on the basis that the governance review was an initiative by Cheshire East Council and therefore it should be the Borough Council which ought to bear the cost. Based on the feedback from the Parish Council, and given the relatively high levels of electoral representation, it was proposed that no increase in the number of parish councillors was required. In respect of the cost of elections, the Council’s policy was for Cheshire East Council to fund the cost of parish elections when these were held at the same time as the Ordinary ... view the full minutes text for item 65.
66.	Next Meeting View the background to item 66. Minutes: The next meeting would be held in December on a date to be agreed with the Chairman following consultation with Members. The next meeting would consider: 1. DCLG consultation on community governance reviews of parish councils; and 2. progress with, and preparations for, asset transfers, budget arrangements, the appointment of an interim clerk and other matters relating to the proposed Crewe parish council; Jackie Weaver of ChALC would be invited to attend the meeting. Relevant officers would also be asked to attend.