Meeting documents

At the previous meeting the Committee agreed to conduct a Community Governance Review for Denham, Stoke Poges and Farnham Royal parish councils. This followed requests received from those parish councils for South Bucks District Council to the review and change the governance arrangements in place, specifically relating to council size and the warding arrangements for those parish councils. At that meeting authority was delegated to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, in consultation with the Chairman, to agree the Terms of Reference of the review.

A public consultation took place from 3 September to 12 October 2018 inviting local electors and other interested parties to submit their views and comments on the current governance arrangements for the three parish councils, or to propose changes. Members considered the responses to the consultation, relevant guidance, electorate ratios and the proposed draft recommendations for the three parishes, as set out in the report.

Denham Parish Council’s initial request proposed that all wards be removed from the parish so that it becomes an unwarded parish. During the consultation 3 representations were received proposing that all parish wards be removed in Denham. None of the representations received suggested that there be any change to the council size.

Stoke Poges Parish Council’s initial request proposed that the council size be reduce from 13 to 9 Parish Councillors. During the consultation, responses proposed that the number of councillors be reduced from 13 to 9, 10, or 11.

Guidance suggests that 11 Councillors is recommended for an electorate of 3,500, and 12 for an electorate of 4,400. A reduction in Council size to 11 Councillors would bring the elector ratio up from 300 to 355 which is closer to the South Bucks Parish Council average of 384. One representation also proposed that parish wards be removed; however there are no parish wards at present.

Farnham Royal Parish Council’s initial request proposed removing the current three parish wards so that it became an unwarded parish. One representation received during the consultation recommended this approach. Another representation received recommended that a minimum of two wards be retained in order to align with the two county electoral divisions. The guidance recommends that principal council boundaries align with parish wards. No representations were received regarding the council size.

The next stage of the review was to submit the Committee’s draft recommendations to public consultation. The representations received during this second stage of consultation would then be considered by the Committee at the next meeting on 16 January 2019. The Committee would then be asked to agree final recommendations for consideration by Full Council.

Following a discussion it was RESOLVED that:

1.      The representations received during the first consultation, as set out in Appendix 3, be noted.

2.      The following draft recommendations be agreed:

a)      Denham Parish Council – remove all parish wards

b)     Stoke Poges Parish Council – reduce the size of the council from 13 to 11 parish councillors

c)      Farnham Royal Parish Council – remove 1 parish ward (by combining Farnham Royal South with Farnham Royal Central) to create a total of 2 parish wards