Meeting documents

Venue: Committee Room 1

Contact: Jemma Durkan 

Items
No. Item

25.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from A Collingwood and D Knights.

26.

MINUTES

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2018 (previously circulated)

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the Regulatory & Appeals Committee held on 4 December 2018 be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

27.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

To receive any disclosure of disclosable pecuniary interests by Members relating to items on the agenda.  If any Member is uncertain as to whether an interest should be disclosed, he or she is asked if possible to contact the District Solicitor prior to the meeting.

 

Members are reminded that if they are declaring an interest, they should state the nature of that interest whether or not they are required to withdraw from the meeting. 

 

Minutes:

Upon seeking advice, Councillors M Clarke, A Green and Ms J Wassell were informed that it was not necessary for them to declare an interest in agenda item 4 unless they felt they had already predetermined the matter under consideration.

 

All Members concerned remained in the meeting and took full part in both the discussion and voting on the matter.

28.

COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE REVIEW - MICKLEFIELD & TOTTERIDGE

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

A report was considered which requested Members` feedback with regard to the Community Governance Review of the Micklefield and Totteridge wards and any other areas identified as appropriate for review for example Sands, and/or whether a Community Governance Review of any other unparished area within High Wycombe should also be carried out. In doing so, the wording for the Terms of Reference for the reviews would also need to be considered and agreed which in accordance with statutory requirements necessitated for them to be published. This in turn would trigger a 12 month period in which the review was to be completed.

 

The proposed terms of Reference for the Totteridge/Micklefield wards was set out at (Appendix A) to the report. A further part of the appendix laid out the terms of reference with regard to the creation of one or more parishes for the unparished area of High Wycombe. The presenting officer highlighted that a consultation would be required to be undertaken with the local government electors in the areas under review and other relevant interested parties as determined by the Council.

 

The report stated that a decision was now required to be made following the receipt of 2 petitions which had been validated and which had therefore triggered a community governance review of the wards of both Micklefield and Totteridge. It was brought to the Members` attention that a further petition had also been received for a review of the whole of the unparished area within High Wycombe, and also for that of the Sands ward. However at the present time the latter two had not yet been validated but work was underway to establish whether the review of these areas was also triggered.  In the event that the petitions were valid the resultant CGR would be joined to the existing review, for completion within the 12 month time limit.

 

The report further explained that it was the District Council which had the power to undertake CGRs and make changes to local community governance arrangements. Such reviews could consider a number of things including creating merging abolishing parishes, electoral arrangements for parishes and altering the number of councillors and parish warding. In addition councils had the discretion to voluntarily conduct reviews every so often and was considered good practice to do so in order that parish councils could continue to contribute to community empowerment and to the development and coordination of support for citizens and community groups.

 

It was noted that any review which was started now was likely to be completed during the transition period and would therefore fall to be determined by the shadow authority.

 

Following consideration of the report before them, Members were requested to consider and recommend whether a community governance review should be conducted in;

 

(a)  Micklefield and Totteridge wards only.

(b)  Sands – and/or any other appropriate identified areas

(c)  The whole of the unparished area of High Wycombe

 

A report to Council would be submitted at its next meeting scheduled for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.