Agenda item

To consider a request from Glatton Parish Council to undertake a Community Governance Review to review the parish boundary between Glatton and Conington parishes.

With the aid of a report prepared by the Elections and Democratic Services Manager (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Committee gave consideration to a request from Glatton Parish Council to undertake a Community Governance Review to review the boundary between Glatton and Conington parishes.

By way of background, the Elections and Democratic Services Manager reported that the main reason for the review was to change the anomalous boundaries to reflect current local identities and facilitate effective neighbourhood plans. Glatton Parish Council had approached Conington Parish Council twice since November 2022 but at both meetings Conington Parish Council concluded that they did not wish to make any changes to the existing arrangements. A formal request was therefore made by Glatton Parish Council to the Council to consider undertaking a Community Governance Review. The Committee’s attention then was drawn to the two recommendations contained within the report which proposed to either proceed with the review or decline it.

Councillor A R Jennings queried the number of Community Governance Reviews undertaken by the Council to date, together with the number of reviews which had resulted in parish boundary changes. In response, it was reported that under the current legislation none had resulted in boundary changes but that all parish boundaries had previously been subject to a full boundary review. Having expressed sympathies with both parishes, a suggestion was made by Councillor J A Gray to undertake a full review of all parish boundaries across the District. The Elections and Democratic Services Manager responded that this would be a large undertaking, with each parish being considered on its own merit and would also require a review of electoral arrangements across all three tiers of local government. It was then suggested that the Committee might consider an option to respond back to Glatton Parish Council requesting them to seek the views of the electorate via a petition. A Community Governance Review might then be considered by the Council if the requisite number of signatories had been obtained from the electorate. The Chief Executive made comment that this option would provide the Council with greater confidence that the proposal was reflective of the wider parish views. Additionally, she concurred that undertaking a full review of parish boundaries across the District would be very resource intensive but that she would undertake to request a call for boundary anomalies to be raised via the Town and Parish Conference in October 2024.

A number of other matters were discussed which included whether parishes were able to put forward neighbouring parish areas into their Neighbourhood Plans, the impact of the proposal upon the potential loss of Community Infrastructure Levy or Section 106 funding upon Conington together with the contrary view of Glatton not being able to benefit from such funding from a development that might happen close to their boundary. In respect of the former, it was reported that Neighbourhood Plans could only include areas within their own parish boundary.

Following discussions, the Committee expressed their support for a suggestion made by Councillor J A Gray to amend option b of the recommendation to include reference to Glatton Parish Council obtaining a petition of the requisite number of signatories from the electorate expressing their support for the proposed boundary change or if Glatton Parish Council were able to reach an agreement with Conington Parish Council.

In response to a subsequent question raised by Councillor D Shaw querying whether the petition should extend out to Conington residents, the Chief Executive responded that at this stage, only the views of Glatton residents would be required but that if the electorate agreed to the boundary change, Conington Parish Council might wish to raise the matter with their parishioners too.

Whereupon, it was duly moved and seconded that the Committee

RESOLVED

  to decline to instigate a Community Governance Review requesting that Glatton Parish Council either seeks to reach an agreement with Conington Parish Council and/or submit a petition to the Council with the requisite number of signatories from the area to which a community governance petition relates expressing support for the proposed boundary change.