Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chairman for the Committee for the period of the Electoral Review.

Nominations were sought for a Chairman of the Electoral Review Committee for the period of the electoral review. Following a proposal from Councillor Jonathon Seed, seconded by Councillor Jacqui Lay, it was,

Resolved:

To appoint Councillor Richard Clewer as Chairman.

To elect a Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the period of the Electoral Review.

Nominations were sought for a Vice-Chairman of the Electoral Review Committee for the period of the Electoral Review. Councillor Jonathon Seed was nominated by Councillor Richard Clewer, seconded by Councillor Ashley O’Neill, and Councillor Gavin Grant was nominated by Councillor Graham Wright, seconded by Councillor Clare Cape.

Following a vote, it was,

Resolved:

To appoint Councillor Jonathon Seed as Vice-Chairman.

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Ian Blair-Pilling and Ian McLennan.

Councillor Blair-Pilling was substituted by Councillor Jacqui Lay.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

There were no announcements.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Wednesday 6 December 2017 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Friday 8 December 2017. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no public in attendance.

A report by the Director Legal and Democratic is attached.

In response to notification from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England of the intention to undertake an electoral review of Wiltshire Council, the Electoral Review Committee was established to progress the review on behalf of the Council, and to formulate recommendations for any submissions to be made to the Commission.

A report was received from Ian Gibbons, Director of Legal and Democratic Services, outlining the reason for the electoral review and the process to be followed. The preliminary stage of the review would run until March 2018 and would determine the overall size of Wiltshire Council, and the second stage would then consider the boundaries of the number of divisions decided upon. The report also outlined the main areas that would be considered by the Commission in making their judgement on council size, being the governance arrangements of the council, its scrutiny functions, and the representation role of councillors.

The Committee discussed the data that would need to be collected and assessed for the review in order to make a recommendation on council size, including forecasts on electorate numbers and details on the council’s present and planned governance arrangements. In respect of details on the representational role of councillors, it was agreed to circulate a series of questions from the Commission’s guidance on council size submissions on the subject to all councillors to canvass their views. This and other data would be considered at workshop meetings for the Committee on 20 December 2017 and 3 January 2018.

Details were also sought on the process undertaken during the last review, which took place in the run up to the creation of the unitary council in 2009.

Resolved:

1)    To note the actions taken to date as detailed in the report;

2)    To note the two distinct parts to the electoral review - council size (preliminary stage) running until March 2018 and consideration of division boundaries from May 2018 to March 2019;

3)    To agree the approach in developing the Council’s submission on council size including the collection and presentation of data, working with the Commission’s representatives and publicity as detailed in the report; and,

4)    To agree the timetable of activity for the Committee to direct the project as detailed in Minute 8;

5)    To circulate questions in relation to the representation role of councillors to all members of the council.

20 December– CommitteeWorkshop – ConsiderationofData

3January– Committee Meeting – Formulation of Recommendations

25 January –Committee Meeting – FinaliseRecommendations

7 February– Committee Meeting – FinaliseSubmission to Council

20 February (or extraordinary)– Council Meeting – Approve Submissionto Commission

The Project Board will be scheduled to meet to periodically to ensure the requirements of the Committee are delivered by the project team. 

The following meeting schedule was agreed by the Committee:

20 December 2017 - Committee Workshop

3 January 2018 - Committee Workshop

11 January 2018 - Committee Meeting

25 January 2018 - Committee Meeting

7 February 2018 - Committee Meeting