Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Christopher Newbury, Jonathon Seed and Stuart Wheeler.

Apologies were also received from Councillors Ashley O’Neil and Graham Wright, that they would arrive late to the meeting.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 5 September 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 September 2018 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.

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 25 September 2018 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 27 September 2018. 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 comment was received at the meeting from a representative of Chute Parish Council, supporting the proposed division in that area. In response to a question on the names of divisions it was confirmed the ones detailed in the agenda documents were placeholders only.

On 28 August 2018 the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) announced it was minded to agree a figure of 98 as the future council size for Wiltshire Council, and launched a consultation on proposed patterns of divisions from that date until 5 November 2018.

Between 3-20 September the Chairman of the Electoral Review Committee held a series of meetings with members of each Area Board to gather evidence for proposed new divisional boundaries.

The Electoral Review Committee will hold a series of workshops on 27 September and 1 October to discuss the principles to be applied to any pattern of divisions and suggestions of potential divisions as a result.

A proposed pattern of divisions will therefore be tabled for discussion at the meeting.

Full Council will consider any proposed pattern of divisions on 16 October 2018.

Councillor Richard Clewer, Chairman of the Electoral Review Committee, presented the draft council wide pattern of divisions proposal as contained within agenda supplements 1 and 2. It was emphasised that the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE)was running a consultation from 28 August to 5 November, and Wiltshire Council was only a consultee in that process. It was noted that all parishes had been contacted on multiple occasions to draw their attention to the review, and information gathering sessions held for each existing area board. All comments received had been circulated to all councillors.

In preparing a council wide submission it was explained as also detailed in agenda supplement 3 that key principles had been applied when preparing new divisions. These included: the abiding principle that every effort be made to ensure divisions were within a variance of 10% from the target number of electors of 4263; that area boards, being critical to the decision of the LGBCE to retain a council size of 98, should be maintained wherever possible in a similar form as their existing one; that where previous Community Governance Reviews had made a decision on existing built up urban areas that those decisions be followed when drawing up proposed divisions; to preserve parishes in their entirety wherever possible except where community interest determined otherwise; that wherever possible divisions should be entirely urban or entirely rural; and that where known new development was to take place  on the edge of an urban area that the default position should be that the areas should be contained within the same division. This would be without prejudice to any possible future governance reviews.

The Committee endorsed the use of those principles in developing proposals, and then discussed the draft submission documentation in detail. It was recognised that any alterations to the proposal at committee or council would need to have no effect or mitigated effect on the rest of the proposal, to ensure coherence. It was also strongly highlighted that in all urban areas many lines remained indicative and would be subject to some change up to and beyond the council meeting on 16 October. This was because calculating electors by individual street would be required, and therefore some of the lines might contain too few or too many electors, which was the critical factor.

In discussing the proposals, the Committee discussed a number of key areas. In relation to the proposed division of Amesbury West and Bulford it was stated that further discussions had been had with local councillors, and an alternative was suggested to include sections of the current Amesbury East division with the parish of Bulford, and that this represented a community focused proposal. The Committee accepted the suggestion for incorporation within the overall draft proposal.

In relation to proposed divisions with the Trowbridge community area the Committee discussed at length the proposed inclusion of new urban areas, geographic barriers within the area, and the nature of any communities within the town and how to divide  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

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

There were no urgent items.