Issue - meetings

The Civic Affairs Committee

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL:

That Council agrees to

(a)  agree the alternative boundary, as shown on the green line in the attached map (Appendix L), less the red cross hatched area, and

(b)  make a request to the LGBCE to re-align the County Council boundary along the new parish boundary.

Report Attached.

Following amendment of the original recommendation of the Civic Affairs Committee, Council AGREED:

(1)  To agree the alternative boundary, as shown on the green line, less the red cross hatched area, in the newly circulated map marked L1; and

(2)  To make a request to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) to re-align the County Council boundary along the new parish boundary.

Councillor David McCraith, Chairman of the Civic Affairs Committee, presented a report which invited the Council to consider the recommendations of the Committee, at its meeting held on 4 January 2018, regarding the Community Governance Review for Willingham and Over.

In so doing, he reminded Members that the Council had received a petition signed by local residents and businesses to carry out a Community Governance Review of the Willingham and Over boundary.  The terms of reference for the review had been published and public consultation undertaken. The Civic Affairs Committee had initially considered the options at its meeting held on 28 September 2017 and had agreed to recommend no change to the boundary for the reasons set out in the report before Council.  Subsequently, as a result of a third party challenge and legal advice received, the decision had been taken by officers to refer the matter back to the Civic Affairs Committee for re-consideration.  The Civic Affairs Committee, at its meeting held on 7 December 2017, had reconsidered the options in relation to the Community Governance Review.  The unanimous decision had been to defer consideration to allow the two parish councils time to discuss and resolve the matter locally.  On reconvening on 4 January 2018, the Civic Affairs Committee had been advised that the two parish councils had been unable to reach agreement.  Having considered all the options available and the need to secure that community governance in the area under review reflected “the identities and interests of the community in that area” and was “effective and convenient”, the Committee had agreed the recommendation as set out in item 9(b) of the agenda.  The draft minutes of the meeting held on 4 January 2018 had also been attached at Appendix M to that report.

CouncillorMcCraith accordingly moved the following recommendations of the Civic Affairs Committee:-

“That the Council agrees to

(a)  Agree the alternative boundary, as shown on the green line in the attached map (Appendix L), less the red cross hatched area, and

(b)  Make a request to the LGBCE to re-align the County Council boundary along the new parish boundary.”

Councillor Charles Nightingale seconded the proposition.

Councillor Peter Topping proposed an amendment as follows:-

“That recommendation (a) be amended to delete the words “in the attached map (Appendix L)” and to insert the following words after “area” “in the newly circulated map marked L1”; and so that (a) reads:

(a)  Agree the alternative boundary, as shown on the green line, less the red crossed hatched area, in the newly circulated map marked L1; and

Recommendation (b) to remain as set out in the original recommendation.”

Councillor Topping outlined his reasoning for proposing the amendment, noting that it was intended to tighten the boundary and reduce the amount of land which would move from Over to Willingham with the aim of achieving a fair compromise in respect of a subject which had been subject of much debate over the last year.

Councillor David Bard seconded the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9

The Committee

RECOMMENDED THAT COUNCIL

A)        Agree the alternative boundary, as shown on the green line in the attached map, less the red cross hatched area.

B)        Make a request to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) to re-align the County Council boundary along the new parish boundary.

The Principal Lawyer for Governance reminded the Committee that a valid petition had been received and according to Section 88 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 the Community Governance Review must make one of the following recommendations in relation to the existing parishes:

·         that the parish should not be abolished and that its area should not be altered;

·         that the area of the parish should be altered;

·         that the parish should be abolished.

The Principal Lawyer for Governance advised that under the above Act the Council must have regard to the need to secure that community governance in the area under review:

·         reflects the identities and interests of the community in that area;

·         is effective and convenient.

The Principal Lawyer for Governance explained that the “area under review” was the whole area of Willingham and Over.

The Chairman invited representatives from Over Parish Council and Willingham Parish Council to speak.

Parish Councillor Geoff Twiss, Vice-Chairman of Over Parish Council

Parish Councillor Geoff Twiss made the following points:

·         Two meetings had been arranged between Over and Willingham Parish Councils.

·         A site visit had also been arranged, but this had focussed on the areas of green space.

·         The first meeting heard that Over Parish Council were unanimously opposed to moving the boundary and so the second meeting was not held.

·         The boundary had remained unchanged for 400 years and part of the areas heritage.

The Committee asked Parish Councillor Twiss for clarification on a number of points and received the following replies:

·         There was primary source evidence, repeated in the History of Over, that the current boundary was agreed in 1602.

·         There was no formal resolution at the meeting of Over Parish Council to decide that the boundary should be unchanged, but the feeling was unanimous.

Parish Councillor Dr Ray Croucher, Chairman of Willingham Parish Council

Parish Councillor Dr Ray Croucher made the following points:

·         The meeting between representatives of Over and Willingham Parish Councils had not resulted in a compromise solution.

·         Over Parish Councillor Graham Fenn had suggested an amendment to the boundary, which had not been sanctioned by Over Parish Council and was not acceptable to Willingham Parish Council.

·         The circulated map showed a proposed compromise solution, that had been agreed by Willingham Parish Council Planning Committee.

·         This proposal had been made independently of the petitioner Barry Papworth.

·         This proposal reduced the amount of land to be transferred by approximately 40%.

·         In keeping with the guidance, the proposal kept to natural boundaries and had clear open space between occupied areas.

The Committee asked Parish Councillor Croucher for clarification on a number of points and received the following replies:

·         The Planning Committee of Willingham Parish Council had agreed the compromise solution on the distributed map.

·         The Planning Committee’s proposals had not been mentioned at the joint meeting with Over Parish Council as it had been clear that no compromise was possible.

·         The proposed area included an empty field as the boundary was marked with a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4

The Committee

AGREED        To defer this decision for four weeks to allow the two parish councils to hopefully meet to discuss and resolve this matter. The Committee will meet on 4 January 2018 to make a recommendation to the Council meeting on 25 January 2018.

The Principal Lawyer for Governance read out the following statement:

“Civic Affairs Committee today is being asked to reconsider the decision taken by the committee on the 28th September when this matter was last considered. The decision taken at that meeting was to recommend no change to the boundary on the basis that:

• The suggested boundary change included a large amount of unpopulated land that was unnecessary to resolve the stated anomaly.
• The consultation response of only 244 residents from both villages provided insufficient evidence for the change.

Following this decision correspondence was received from Farrer & Co on behalf of the petitioner and from Willingham Parish Council. External legal advice was sought and the decision was taken that this matter should be reconsidered by the Civic Affairs Committee before a recommendation is made to Council.

Before I hand over to Gemma I would like to highlight the relevant legal framework that members must address when making their recommendations to council.

Section 82 (2) of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (the Act), provides that a Council is obliged to carry out a Community Governance Review if it received a valid petition pursuant to section 80.  That condition has been met here.

Under section 88 of the Act, the Community Governance Review must make one of the following recommendations in relation to the existing parishes:

(a)  that the parish should not be abolished and that its area should not be altered;

(b)  that the area of the parish should be altered;

(c)  that the parish should be abolished.

By section 93(2) of the Act, the Council has discretion as to how to conduct the Community Governance Review, subject to the duties recorded in that section. Those duties are set out in P10/11 to the report and 93 (4) states that the council must have regard to the need to secure that community governance in the area under review ‘reflects the identities and interests of the community in that area’ and ‘is effective and convenient’.

Section 100(1) of the Act empowered the Secretary of State to issue guidance as to the carrying out of Community Governance Reviews and by section 100(4) of the Act, the Council is obliged to have regard to any such guidance issued.

The guidance has been reproduced in full and officers selected passages from the guidance in light of the previous decision taken in September which they think will be helpful in guiding members in making a decision today.

As regards Dispensations you will see that dispensations have been granted to both Cllr Manning and to Cllr Burling to take part in the discussion today but not to vote.  Accordingly, any previous challenge to the granting of a dispensation to Cllr Burling at the last meeting is now irrelevant.

Finally, I want to make one thing very clear.  I am not saying that members here today cannot make the same decision – no change to the boundary.  I am saying that if members were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5

The Civic Affairs Committee

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL     No change in the parish boundary (Option C).

The Head of Sustainable Communities and Wellbeing presented this report which invited the Committee to consider the responses received through public consultation to the Community Governance Review of the Willingham and Over parish boundary and make a recommendation to Council. Representatives of both Willingham and Over Parish Councils were invited to address the Committee.

Parish Councillor Philip King, Vice-Chairman of Willingham Parish Council, addressed the Committee and made the following points:

·         The original boundary was determined by the position of the parish churches, but the westwards expansion of Willingham placed the boundary in the wrong position.

·         Occupants of Highgate Business Park considered themselves to be part of the village of Willingham, as did the rest of the village.

·         Deliveries to Highgate Business Park sometimes went astray, as their address was Over, but their geographical location was Willingham.

·         Those living in the disputed area wanted to be represented by Willingham Parish Council.

·         Willingham Parish Council did not instigate the review and so this should not be considered to be a “land grab”.

·         Willingham Parish Council supported the proposed boundary change as it made geographical sense and was supported by the residents of Willingham.

In response to questioning, Parish Councillor Philip King stated that he had spoken to many Willingham residents who had expressed support for the change, but he acknowledged that his evidence for support was anecdotal. However, he pointed out that paragraph 26 of the report showed that 91% of Willingham residents supported the change, albeit from a small sample (113 residents).

Parish Councillor Geoff Twiss, Vice-Chairman of Over Parish Council, addressed the Committee and made the following points:

·         The letter from Farrer & Co solicitors on behalf of Highgate County Stores Ltd should be disregarded as it had been sent a day before the meeting, which gave insufficient time for Over Parish Council to respond.

·         In comparison, the views of Over Parish Council had been in the public domain since June this year as they were published in the agenda of the last Committee meeting.

·         The stated percentages of total responders in paragraph 19 of the report were inaccurate, as they were based on the electorate of the villages and not on the number of residents.

·         The “green” line option, as shown on page 41 of the agenda, went across open fields.

·         Willingham had been classed as a minor rural centre and so was subject to different planning considerations than Over. A change to the boundary thus made new development more likely.

·         The current boundary had been agreed 400 years ago and should remain unchanged.

Councillor Pippa Corney, one of the three local members for the ward of Over and Willingham, stated that she supported the proposed change as it was backed by the local businesses who regularly had problems with deliveries from drivers who went to the wrong village. Most residents and visitors simply assumed that the area was already in Willingham and the proposed change simply removed an anomaly. A glance at a map showed that the boundary  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4

This item was deferred to the next Civic Affairs Committee meeting.

Having been made aware that the minutes of the Civic Affairs Committee meeting held on 9 December 2016, stated that the Willingham and Over Parish Boundary Review would not come back to committee until 28 September 2017, the Chairman decided to defer the item. This would allow officers to carry out further consultation before this date. Committee members, local members and the affected parish council and respondents to the consultation had been informed of this in advance of the meeting.

An objection was raised to further consultation being carried out. The Head of Sustainable Communities and Wellbeing clarified that the consultation was not being reopened in full and that the Council would just be going back to those who had responded with more detail in the maps, as criticism of the consultation had been that the maps were not of sufficient detail regarding the boundary lines.

The Civic Affairs Committee NOTED that a Community Governance Review of the Parish boundary between Willingham and Over would be undertaken in view of the required number of signatures to instigate such a review having been received and verified.

The Civic Affairs Committee considered a report which set out a request from a resident to formally review the parish boundary between Willingham and Over.

Andrew Francis, Electoral Services Manager, reported that since publication of the report a petition consisting of the required number of verified signatures to instigate a Community Governance Review for this purpose had been received.  He confirmed that the petition was valid and that the Council would now be carrying out the Community Governance Review, with the information submitted as part of the petition being taken into account as part of the review.  This Committee would consider a terms of reference for the Community Governance Review in due course.

Barry Papworth was the lead petitioner and informed Members that planning matters were not the only reason for requesting a review of this parish boundary.  He explained that residents of the village of Willingham located in the area set out in the report often experienced significant issues with accessing services such as telephone and broadband lines, as well as postal services, due to the presumption that they were already located in Willingham, when in fact they were currently in the Parish of Over.

Philip King, Vice-Chairman of Willingham Parish Council, reported that the Parish Council supported the commencement of an independent review into this matter and reflected that the boundary was very historic, being nearly 400 years ago since it had been put in place.  He said that things had changed a great deal in that time and that the residents affected believed that they belonged to Willingham rather than Over.  Supporting this statement, he added that the Parish Council therefore felt the existing boundary was not conducive to good governance and welcomed the review.

Councillor Pippa Corney, local Member, supported the views of Willingham Parish Council and agreed that there was a common perception that people were in the village of Willingham when they were in fact located in Over.  She felt that resolving this would support local businesses, improve the sustainability of Willingham and make people’s lives easier.

Councillor Ray Manning, local Member, also supported the Parish Council and said that it was difficult to establish exactly where the existing boundary was and that some of the addresses in the area of land referred to, despite officially being within the Over Parish, had Willingham postcodes or telephone numbers. 

Geoff Twiss, Vice-Chairman of Over Parish Council, referred to an email from the Clerk to Over Parish Council, as appended to the report, which sought to correct some claims in the correspondence that he said were untrue.  These related to the distance of Highgate from Over, clarifying that there had been some confusion between the parish boundary and the centre of the village, as well as a perception that Over Parish Council was negative when considering anything in respect of Highgate.  Councillor Twiss reiterated that Over Parish Council had not expressed any negativity in respect of this area and urged for the Council to reject what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7