Agenda item

Keith Mitchell attended in response to the requests from the forum that he bring the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) to the meeting. He confirmed it was quite a long document and wondered if people would prefer him to talk them through it, or if they would prefer to read it for themselves.

Agreed: the EIA be circulated electronically so people could consider it and make any comments they wish in relation to it rather than to go through it in detail in the meeting.

Note further to the meeting: the EIA can be found at http://www.northampton.gov.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?downloadID=2188

John Rawlings asked how many parish councils do other towns like Leicester have.

John Rawlings noted that in some areas the same individuals appear to be county, borough and parish councillor. He wanted to know what national statistics there are for 3 tier councils and the same person occupying the position at every level.

Action: Keith agreed to look into what parish councils there are in surrounding counties and send a report back on these to the forum.

John Rawlings said he was worried that we’re going down the route of having parish councils and that having a unitary authority for Northampton is not part of the debate. The community, he felt, needs to understand why in his view NBC is having powers diminished and staff numbers are reducing repeatedly.

Keith explained that the second stage of the community governance review is the stage at which equalities impacts and these type of questions will be appropriate to be discussed. At that time it will be clear which areas are interested in having some kind of change to their community governance arrangements – whether that is for a new parish council or change to an existing one, for example.

A Roy asked for an update on how the petitions situation has developed since the last meeting.

Keith said that so far there are 7 petitions in all. The website is updated frequently with this information. Parklands had 160 of a required 375 validated signatures currently. Rectory Farm (most of that ward) had 111 validated signatures of target 250 signatures. Sunnyside and Obelisk wards 338 validated signatures towards a target of 667. West Hunsbury has 374 validated exceeding 355 required to reach threshold. Westone ward has 84 validated signatures target 336. Moulton Leys (about half a ward)has 4 validated signatures and needs 250. St James ward validated 373 just crossing 372 threshold.

A Roy wanted to know what would the CGR process do to help encourage people to get engaged.

Keith said that it is intended to have public briefings in the areas where petitions are validated and council agrees for them to go to the second stage which is a consultation stage. The meetings will be advertised in media and on NBC website.  This will go through to about October 2012. If the original proposal needs to be amended as a result of the consultation and listening to what people have said, for example if there is strength of feeling about a boundary this could happen. Those final proposals should then go to Council for a decision to approve having referendum in the relevant areas. Voting in the relevant parts of Northampton should then be 15 Nov 2012.

John Rawlings referred to Article 12 of Northampton Borough Council’s Constitution’s and the Neighbourhood Partnerships which appear to be part of current community governance arrangements. Keith replied that in its considerations, Northampton Borough Council would need to make decisions about what would happen to any existing community governance mechanisms.

Note further to the meeting

Community Governance Review has to be conducted following legislation and statutory guidance about when such reviews can and should be done (e.g. it is not advisable to do this during a ward boundary review, it is suggested that a good time to do such review is when an area has seen a lot of demographic change). The guidance includes factors to which councils should have regard such as community cohesion, and the scope of reviews. This guidance is available on the internet at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/743628.pdf

More information about Northampton’s Community Governance Review can be found at www.northampton.gov.uk/cgr .