Issue - meetings

To consider the District-wide Community Governance Review of Parish Councils.

The Electoral Services Manager gave a summary of the report, which looked to progress a Community Governance Review of parish boundaries and electoral arrangements. The report proposed a timetable and terms of reference. A full review was proposed after the May 2021 elections and would be concluded for any parish boundary changes to be reflected in the revised register of electors which had to be published on 1 December 2021.

The Electoral Services Manager responded to a question from Councillor Bagnall about what could be done prior to the initial commencement stage of the timetable being 1 June 2021 by stating that information would be sent to Parish Councils ahead of Christmas 2020 and that Parishes had already shown an interest.

He also responded to a question from Councillor Foley about the possible changing nature of how people voted, particularly with the likelihood of more postal voting, by stating that planning arrangements were already in place for the elections due on 6 May 2021 and that the opportunities for postal voting would be well publicised. He said that in light of the pandemic there might be alterations made to the emergency proxy voting processes.

The Chair thanked the Electoral Services Manager for his report. He asked whether there was any dissent to the recommendation for approval. There was unanimous approval.

The Committee approved the terms of reference and timetable of a district-wide community governance review of parishes, as set out in Appendix A. This to include the scheduling of an extraordinary meeting of the committee (if necessary) to enable the review to be concluded before publication of the revised register of electors on 1 December 2021.