Issue - meetings

Community Governance Reviews

 

 

Meeting: 11/05/2022 - South Holland District Council (Item 14)

14 Community Governance Reviews pdf icon PDF 210 KB

To consider a request for Community Governance Reviews (CGR) for the Parish of Cowbit to increase the number of Councillors from five to seven and for Holbeach to decrease the number of Councillors from eighteen to sixteen  (report of the Assistant Director – Governance (Monitoring Officer) enclosed).

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Governance (Monitoring Officer) to consider a request for Community Governance Reviews for the Parish of Cowbit to increase the number of councillors from five to seven and for Holbeach to decrease the number of councillors from eighteen to sixteen.

 

The Assistant Director Governance clarified to members that the decision being requested at the meeting was to commence a review and to agree a timetable, and not to make a determination on the proposals.

 

Members considered the report and the following points were made:

 

·         Councillor Carter commented that it was a shame that Holbeach had not had a full compliment of councillors for a number of years – the town of Holbeach was growing and reducing numbers may not be the best way forward.

 

·         Members asked at what point the District Council could get involved when a Parish Council was not functioning as it should.

  • The Assistant Director Governance advised that the District Council had very limited powers in respect of the regulation of a Parish Council.  The Monitoring Officer and Deputy Monitoring Officers were responsible for investigating individual complaints against individual councillors.  In addition, if the Parish Council became inquorate, District Councillors could be appointed to make it quorate until such time as there were sufficient numbers.  However, with regard to intervening, the District Council had no legal power to do so. With regard to Holbeach Parish Council, SHDC had assisted where it could as part of the Standards process but there was no regulatory power to intervene.

·         Members responded to ask how many members of the community were required to submit a petition for action to be undertaken.

  • The Assistant Director Governance replied that he would obtain and share this information after the meeting.  However, he reiterated the point that, even if a petition were to be submitted, the District Council had no legal authority to intervene in the operations of a Parish Council.

 

·         Councillor Worth commented that, although he supported the review, he was disappointed that one of the proposals was to remove one of the seats from the Holbeach Hurn ward as there was not much representation for the villages. 

 

DECISION:

 

1)    Cowbit Parish Council – To approve to undertake a Community Governance Review for the Parish of Cowbit;

 

2)    Holbeach Parish Council - To approve to undertake a Community Governance Review for the Parish of Holbeach;

 

3)    That delegated powers are given to the Monitoring Officer to carry out the Reviews;

 

4)    To agree the timetable for the Reviews as attached at Appendix A.

 

5)    That the Monitoring Officer reports the findings of the Reviews to Council for final decision.