Issue - meetings

Any Motions on Notice for consideration at this meeting will follow in a supplementary pack.

A period of up to one hour is allocated to consider the motions on notice.  This may only be extended with the agreement of the Council.

The following Motion on Notice was submitted by Councillor S. Evans for Members’ consideration:

“Council resolves to establish a cross-party working group, comprised of members of the Electoral Matters Committee together with any other interested Members, to undertake preparatory work to determine, in the context of Local Government reorganisation, future local governance arrangements within Bromsgrove District. The working group will consider the most appropriate arrangements for future local governance within Bromsgrove District, including the option to undertake a Community Governance Review and will report back to Council within six months with its findings and recommendations.”

The Motion was proposed by Councillor Evans and seconded by Councillor R. Hunter.

In proposing the Motion, Councillor Evans commented that his District Council ward was completely unparished, so he had had limited involvement with Parish Councils in his District Councillor capacity.  However, as a County Councillor, he represented a division containing a number of Parish Councils and he had therefore learned over the last year about how effective and valuable they could be.

There was the potential for the Electoral Matters Committee to consider whether there was a need for a Community Governance Review in Bromsgrove District.  Many other Councils had undertaken Community Governance Reviews in the build up to Local Government Reorganisation and Councillor Evans expressed the view that this had been a useful exercise.  However, the Motion would not commit the Council to setting up new Parish Councils.  Instead, the Motion committed the Council to undertaking a review of the available options.

Members subsequently discussed the Motion and in doing so commented on the following:

·             The benefits of an inclusive approach.

·             The valuable contributions made by Parish Councils.

·             The potential for more clarity to be provided in the Motion about what the Council was seeking to achieve.

·             The time required from officers to work on a review of whether to launch a Community Governance Review and whether this represented best use of resources given the ongoing work required on Local Government Reorganisation.

·             The aim of the Government for each Unitary Authority to have Neighbourhood Area Committees to bring decisions about services closer to residents and the extent to which confusion could arise if both these Committees and Parish Councils were introduced in currently unparished areas.

·             The extent to which it was appropriate for Bromsgrove District Council to make decisions about new Parish Councils rather than the new Unitary Authority.

·             The other duties of Councillors who would be appointed to Neighbourhood Area Committees and whether they would be able to dedicate the same level of support to the work of these Committees as Parish Councillors elected to serve on a Parish Council.

·             The value of making decisions based on the available evidence.

·             The fact that Bromsgrove town was one of the few locations in Worcestershire that was not represented by a Parish or Town Council.

·             The potential for residents to be consulted about whether to introduce Parish Councils in unparished areas.  Members noted that residents in these areas would need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19