Issue - meetings

The Civic Affairs Committee AGREED to an increase in Parish Councillors from 13 to 19 for Cambourne Parish Council.

The Development Officer presented the report which set out the submissions received in relation to the Community Governance Review of Cambourne Parish, and asked the committee to either agree or disagree to an increase in parish councillors from 13 to 19 for Cambourne Parish Council.

Councillor Simon Crocker as local member and former Chairman of Cambourne Parish Council, made the following points:

·         Cambourne Parish Council felt that the proposed increase in the number of parish councillors was necessary.

·         Cambourne Parish was large, with the Parish Council managing £11 million of assets.

·         Due to the nature of Cambourne, many things were happening at once making workload for parish councillors difficult to manage.

·         A large scale planning application for the west of Cambourne had just been approved and once this was built, the population of Cambourne would be 19,500. Increasing the number of parish councillors now would mean an increase in future would not be needed.

The Head of Sustainable Communities and Wellbeing informed the committee that a separate community governance review was being undertaken for West Cambourne.

Members of the committee raised the following points:

·         Concern was raised in increasing the number of parish councillors given that  a recent parish council planning sub-committee was inquorate. It was pointed out that by increasing the number of parish councillors, the quorum was increased.

·         Concern was raised regarding the availability of people to become parish councillors. In response to this, the committee was informed that there was a waiting list for parish councillors in Cambourne and it was not thought that there would be a problem in filling the vacancies.

·         The committee was informed that Cambourne Parish Council had three busy committees with planning committee having to meet every two weeks due to the high workload. A new committee would be formed by the parish council to look at the building of a swimming pool in Cambourne.

·         Given that the increase in parish councillors was requested by the parish council, members expressed their support for the proposal.

The Electoral Services Manager informed the committee that there was no threshold or definition of a town council and that there was no difference between this and a parish council.

A vote was taken with all members voting in favour of the proposed increase in parish councillors. The Civic Affairs Committee therefore AGREED to an increase in parish councillors from 13 to 19 for Cambourne Parish Council.

The Civic Affairs Committee AGREED

(a)  The request from Cambourne Parish Council for a Community Governance Review to increase the number of parish councillors from 13 to 19; and

(b)  Without amendments, the draft terms of reference as laid out in Appendix A.

(c)  That staff should agree a timetable in consultation with Cambourne Parish Council.

The Partnerships and Sustainable Communities Manager presented this item, which invited the Committee to consider a request from Cambourne Parish Council to instigate a Community Governance Review to increase the council size from 13 to 19 parish councillors.

In response to concerns that Cambourne Parish Council would be unable to find enough residents to serve on a Council with 19 seats, Councillor Simon Crocker, Chairman of Cambourne Parish Council, informed the Committee that since Cambourne Parish Council was formed in 2004 it has successfully co-opted new members 16 times and had never failed to fill a vacancy.

The Civic Affairs Committee AGREED

(a)  The request from Cambourne Parish Council for a Community Governance Review to increase the number of parish councillors from 13 to 19; and

(b)  Without amendments, the draft terms of reference as laid out in Appendix A.

(c)  That staff should agree a timetable in consultation with Cambourne Parish Council.