Issue - meetings

General Progress Update Presentation

Meeting: 26/10/2023 - Boundary and Electoral Arrangements Working Party (Item 22)

General Progress Update Presentation

Nick Hughes to provide a presentation to Members on the progress so far.

Minutes:

Nick Hughes, Committee Services Manager & Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report and made the following comments:

 

·  Democratic Services were working on putting together all the evidence required by the LGBCE as part of the information pack and evidence pack;

·  The pulling together of the Housing Development data had been completed with help from Adrian Verrall, Strategic Planning Manager;

·  The polling district map had been developed;

·  Thanet Villages had been separated out into the individual polling districts;

·  The map would be shared with Members;

·  The latest Review of Polling stations and places had been sourced;

·  Parish electoral arrangements information had also been sourced;

·  The Legal Department had confirmed that there were of no Orders for the period under review;

·  Westgate-On-Sea Town Council had been created during the period under review;

 

·  It was now possible to give a forecast of the housing development numbers and placing such information on the district map;

·  150 contacts had been added to the stakeholder database. Comms and regeneration teams were assisting with putting this information together;

·  Evidence about the committee structure had been sourced;

·  Historical information regarding the Outside Bodies that TDC was committed to had been sourced;

·  The percentage planning applications processed over the years had been compiled;

·  Individual Cabinet Member decisions made over the years under review had been pulled together for comparison purposes;

·  The Scrutiny Panel structure had also been looked at.

 

Next Steps

·  Democratic services would be drafting the submission report for consideration by the working party to settle on a specific number of proposed councillors and this would be considered at the 9 November meeting;

·  Once the working party agreed on a number this would then be put before Full Council in December for final approval before submission was made to the LGBCE;

·  The working party would meet again if Full Council were to come up with a total councillor number different to the one proposed by the working party.

 

Members made comments as follows:

 

·  Although the issue regarding polling stations was not part of this discussion and review process, it should be noted that it would be challenging to find polling stations;

·  The bulk of housing development would be concentrated in certain specific areas of the district like Brooksend in Birchington. This might lead to future exclusion of some voters due to lack of polling stations.

 

Members noted the update report.


Meeting: 05/10/2023 - Boundary and Electoral Arrangements Working Party (Item 15)

15 General Progress Update Presentation pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Nick Hughes to provide a presentation to Members on the progress so far.

Minutes:

Nick Hughes, Committee Services Manager introduced the report and made the following comments:

 

·  The Council was required to produce evidence for the review that included the following information:

 

§  Geocoded Electoral Register

§  Current & Forecast Electorate,

§  Forecasting Methodology

§  Housing Development Data,

§  Polling District Maps

§  Polling District Review Report

§  Parish Electoral Arrangements

§  Parish Ward Maps

§  Local Orders & Governance Changes

§  Communications Planning

§  Stakeholder Database

 

·  Local Orders and Governance Changes: This would be information on whether the Council had made any changes since the last review;

·  The forecast document had been updated with electoral information and there was a tool for forecasting elector numbers;

·  The Council had to identify predictions that were outside this LGBCE model using the challenge data column in the forecast document;

·  There were large housing developments in Thanet. If these house numbers were going to be built the corresponding number of electors would be significantly different to the LGBCE ones;

·  The Comms and Digital teams were working on collecting data;

·  The Legal department had confirmed that the Council did not have any Orders in the period under review;

 

·  Democratic Services were currently collecting stakeholder data;

·  BEAWP had agreed at the previous meeting on working towards a councillor number of between 36 and 44;

·  It was worth noting that Outside Bodies numbers to which the Council appointed its representatives had significantly decreased in the period under review. The number was half of what it was;

·  The Council had changed governance arrangements from a committee system to executive arrangements in the period under review;

·  Councillors were now using more of ICT equipment like Chromebook to carry out their councillor role including communicating with residents in their respective constituencies;

·  Members were now working more efficiently than before;

·  There was a cabinet system in place and there was no intention to change;

 

·  There was now more officer decision making than before and less policy framework and key decisions to be made by Members;

·  There was currently a high threshold for key decision definition;

·  There was also now a single Overview and Scrutiny Panel, unlike before when there were two;

·  There were less committees than before;

·  There was currently extensive Member support and training, all to deal with Member queries and casework;

·  There were significant areas of deprivation in Thanet, therefore busier wards in terms of councillor ward casework;

·  The Council could consider combining some committee functions like Standards and Governance and Audit into a single committee thereby reducing further the number of committee there were. This would also reduce the need to keep the councillor number at the current level;

·  Officers would bring all the evidence at the next meeting;

·  LGBCE wanted the Council to provide them with a number of proposed councillor for Thanet and not a range.

 

One Member said that councillors had different approaches to work. Some were proactive whilst others were reactive. It was about how manage their casework. They further said that a committee membership of 15 councillors was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15