Agenda item

The Director of Law and Democratic Services submitted a report introducing decisions arising from the Cabinet meeting held on 17^th August 2016.

37.     Community Governance Review

Councillors David Renard, Leader of the Council and Mary Martin, Cabinet Member for Communities responded to questions put by the Chair and Councillors Emma Bushell, Emma Faramarzi, Nick Martin, Gemma McCracken, Jane Milner Barry, Des Moffatt, Maureen Penny, Chris Watts and Steve Weisinger on the following matters:

·       The timetable for the creation of new Parish Councils.

·       The method of distribution of the information leaflet to households and concerns that previous leaflet drops had omitted some areas of the borough.

·       Issues relating to the form of words used in the information leaflet and the lack of consultation with the other political groups.

·       The proposed Parish Council boundaries set out within the Cabinet papers.

·       The Council’s practice relating to the recording of Public Question Time.

·       The use of other Council communication lists and social media feeds to promote the consultation and to advise households that an information leaflet will be distributed.

·       The composition of the Parish Council transitions team, its funding and its proposed role in the process of establishing Parish Councils.

·       Support available to newly created Parish Councils in the provision of services.

·       The methodology and criteria for measuring the success of the project.

·       The terms of office for newly elected Parish Councillors.

·       Whether Borough Councillors would be appointed as Parish Councillors and what would happen should there not be enough volunteers standing for vacant Parish Councillor positions.

·       Whether specific and general reserves would be identified for transfer to Parish Councils in line with functions that are transferred.

·       Whether it was normal to split electoral polling districts as suggested in the under the Cabinet proposals.

·       Whether the current data using high level modelling would provide sufficient data to allow an informed decision to be made.

·       The financial impact in the variance in property valuation bandings and whether additional work was required to fully ascertain its implications.

·       The effect on service provision should any Parish Council not agree to the transfer of specific services and whether Swindon Borough Council would need to take on such service provision as the principal authority.

·        The particular financial pressures that might affect any parished area in the town centre.

·       The ability of newly created Parish Councils to undertake or finance specialised services (for example the maintenance of lakes) and whether Parishes would be expected to take on responsibility for assets that were seen as having town wide benefits.

·       The rationale behind the proposed boundaries for new Parish Councils set out within the Cabinet papers.

·       How assets would be identified as Borough, strategic or Parish assets; the need to produce an accurate record of assets to be transferred together with their current condition and potential works required and which organisation is currently responsible for them.

·       The need to identify as early as possible the likely cost of running services and maintaining assets in order to allow Parish Councils to make rational decisions on which responsibilities they may wish to undertake.

·       The need for the final Cabinet report to address all the implications of transferring services to newly established or existing parishes, i.e. the impact on social deprivation or health implications, arising from the final proposals.

·       The importance of allowing all Councillors and Parish Councillors access to lists of assets so they might have an input to ensure accuracy.

·       The effect on current resilient communities following the creation of Parish Councils.

Resolved – That Minute 37 of the Cabinet be noted.

37.     SEQOL - Update

The Chair advised the Committee that this item had been withdrawn from the Cabinet Agenda.