Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillor Ian Blair-Pilling.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2019.

Minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2019 were presented for consideration, and it was,

Resolved:

To approve and sign the minutes as a true and correct record.

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.

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 4 March 2019 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 6 March 2019. 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.

A statement was received from Mr Francis Morland that as he had set out in communication to the Committee and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England he had serious concerns that the electorate projections used to the review were seriously flawed.

On 5 February 2019 the Local Government Boundary Commission for England published its draft recommendations for a pattern of electoral divisions for Wiltshire, to apply from the elections in May 2021.

The Commission is consulting on its proposals until 15 April 2019, and publish

its final recommendations on 2 July 2019. Final recommendations cannot be

amended, therefore the current consultation is the final opportunity for interested parties to comment.

A special meeting of Full Council has been arranged for 25 March to respond to the consultation.

Following initial consideration of and comment on the draft recommendations at its meeting on 28 February 2019, the Committee will consider a draft submission to recommend to Full Council.

The draft submission will follow in an agenda supplement.

The Chairman updated the Committee on work that had been undertaken since the last meeting including identifying all minor mapping issues that would need to be raised with the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, for instance where they had accepted the Council’s proposals but shown a slightly different line on the map, or not aligned with parish boundaries.

The Committee then considered the draft submission to be debated at Full Council on 25 March 2019, and confirmed the approach that should be recommended for each division. It was agreed that in the absence of local objection to accept the proposals for Devizes, although there were some concerns about the size of the divisions given lack of development in the northern area. For the Southwick division it was agreed to propose a line that ran around the back of houses rather than the Woodmarsh and Westbury road, to avoid the Trowbridge division extending into the village proper of North Bradley. Other areas discussed included retaining the original proposals of the Council for Westbury and accepting the proposals of the Commission in Corsham town.

The Committee also received a list of recommended names for each division and discussed them further, noting a consistent and broad set of principles had been used to develop them. It was then agreed to circulate an updated list to all committee members with the final decision on what to propose to council delegated to the Director of Legal and Democratic Services.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

To recommend that Council approves the draft response to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England as set out in the agenda papers, subject to any necessary consequential changes and any supporting evidence, with the final wording of the response to be delegated to the Director of Legal and Democratic Services after consultation with the Chairman of the Electoral Review Committee.

That the proposed names of divisions to be recommended to Council be delegated to the Director of Legal and Democratic Services after consultation with the Chairman of the Electoral Review Committee and circulation of the updated list to the Committee.

Any other items of business, which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.