Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Alison Atherton, Senior Professional - Democratic Services  Tel: 020 8424 1266 E-mail:  alison.atherton@harrow.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

5.

Attendance by Reserve Members

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

 

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

 

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

 

Ordinary Member

 

Reserve Member

 

Councillor Ramji Chauhan

Councillor Ameet Jogia

Councillor Honey Jamie

Councillor James Lee

Councillor Angella Murphy-Strachan

Councillor Nitin Parekh

Councillor Primesh Patel

Councillor Ghazanfar Ali

 

6.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

 

(a)               all Members of the Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

Minutes:

Agenda Item 3:

 

Councillor Fitzpatrick observed that, to the extent that members of the Committee were all serving councillors, they all had a personal interest in the matter.

RESOLVED ITEMS

7.

Electoral Review 2018-19 - Local Government Boundary Commission for England pdf icon PDF 187 KB

Report of the Director of Legal and Governance Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report seeking approval of the content of the Council’s submission on proposed new ward boundaries and the number of councillors for each new proposed ward, as part of the current electoral review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.  The Director of Legal and Governance Services introduced the report, confirming that the Commission had agreed to a later submission of proposals for the names of new wards (by the end of November 2018).  He explained the background to the development of warding proposals which had included substantial consultation with representatives of both political groups on the Council.  As a result of these discussions, two options had emerged and were set out in the report and appendices; the Conservative Group had been invited to submit a further proposal for inclusion in the report, but had not done so.  The Director of Legal and Governance Services referred to the three criteria which the Commission would use in assessing any proposals for warding arrangements; he also outlined the timetable which would include further consultation on the Commission’s final recommendations in the New Year.  He concluded by commending the detailed work of the officers in analysing various proposals and producing related maps and electorate forecasts.

 

Two Members suggested that the Commission could be requested to reconsider its initial decision on the Council size of 55 councillors.  Officers explained that while the Commission had indicated it was “minded to” recommend that figure, it structured its electoral reviews on the basis of sequential phases and the current phase on warding arrangements invited submissions based on the Council size of 55 councillors; any variation in the Council size figure would therefore require the re-casting of all warding proposals.  Nevertheless, representations could still be made on Council size since the Commission’s “final recommendations” would not be published before 8 January 2019.  Another Member stated that it would be important to place on record the Committee’s concerns that residents would be disadvantaged by such a reduction in the number of their local elected representatives.

 

In response to a question as to whether it was appropriate for a decision with such overt political implications to be made by a Council committee, it was confirmed that the Committee had delegated authority to determine the Council’s view on electoral arrangements.  Officers explained that there had been many discussions with representatives of the political groups during which a number of proposals had been examined.  The two options outlined in the report had emerged to be taken forward and each of the political groups had been invited to submit a proposal for consideration by the Committee.

 

In response to a question, an officer outlined the differences between the two options in the report, referring to variations affecting five wards to the east of the Borough.

 

In discussing the report, Members made the following proposals:

 

(a)          that the Committee should pass a resolution whereby the Council would request the Commission to reconsider its view on the appropriate Council size and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.