Transcript

is received from Councillor Terry. Councillor Cox. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Apologies from Councillor Darryl Jones and Councillor Evans. Thank you. Any other apologies? Decorations of interest? Oh, sorry. Councillor, can't see from here. Alan. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Apologies, Richard. I believe it's running late as far as I'm aware. Okay, thank you. Decorations of interest. None. Can we please stand for Councillor Ellington. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Could the gentleman be given permission to remove their jackets, please? Not at this point. Can we please stand for a minute's silence? We are now standing for my full respect for Ron Price, former Councillor, Mayor and Honorary Aldermen who sadly passed away recently. Thank you. Please stand for your silence. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please stand for your silence. Okay, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to remove your jackets, you're more than welcome to do so. Item 3, the election reviewer council size submission. The council has before it a report of the executive director of statutory and change setting out the process officers have followed and the evidence used for the submission to the local government boundary commission on the future size of the council. The total number of members of the council which is required by no later than the 9th of July

1. Councillor Gilbert, please make your contribution and move your proposal, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As members will be aware, this is a step in a process that we are required to undertake prior to the redrawing of the boundaries. We are mandated to consider whether or not that we want to make a recommendation on the size of the council. Members will be aware and I'm sure all members will have seen and perhaps taken part in the consultation that has been undertaken to date. Members will note that the recommendation is to recommend that we remain at 51 councillors which from the research that has been undertaken whilst being slightly below the average number of council councillors for an authority of our size and type is nevertheless fairly within the mainstream and I certainly endorse the position that we should be seeking to maintain the current number of councillors. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Gilbert. Councillor Cowan, please second. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Earlier this year, the local government boundary commission started an electoral review of the City Council and that review will take place in two stages. This is the first, the second will follow. My colleague, Councillor Gilbert, has set out the process for this and the conclusion that the council should remain at the size of 51 councillors is the recommendation in front of members. What I would say is that this submission will go to the electoral commission regardless of how many of us support it or not because we still have an option in the second stage when the lines are drawn to make our cases and we also have the ability as individuals or as groups to put forward our case. So for expediency, I would recommend to the entire council that we take the report forward as recommended. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cowan. We will take comments. Please leave your hand up to exit knowledge by the Deputy Mayor so that we can get everybody's names. Thank you. Any comments? Councillor Collins. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wish to speak in support of this paper. I thank the officers for producing it and Councillors Gilbert and Cowan for producing it for us. I think it's appropriate that we are at 51. We are a unitary authority with lots of challenges in our boundaries and I think all councilors in this room understand what that means for us. I think it's an appropriate size of our city and our population which will grow by small numbers and I believe this paper demonstrates that and where we sit in the lower quartile with similar unitary authorities is very appropriate and I believe 51 is an appropriate number for three per ward. 17 wards, I imagine that's what we'll wind up with and I think that works well and we should support this paper as I do. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cox. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to make some general observations on the paper but first of all, I think it would be wrong of us and certainly the support that has actually been provided and some of the information that's been shared with us after just really on behalf of the group, just really want to thank Mark Murphy for all his work that he's done so far and the engagement he's done with members and I think it would be wrong of us as a council not to recognise that. Unfortunately, Mr. Mayor, it's at that part where the support and praise ends. Never before have I seen a paper conducted in such a shameful way. The paper that has been conducted would already been predetermined before we'd even asked for the deadline to be finished for members' submissions. That shouldn't happen. Why should a paper already be predetermined where we had a cut-off date five days later for members to make submissions? Plus also as well, members were asked to make submissions based on a line quite low down in an email titled staff communications. Is it any wonder we only have three responses from members? It's an appalling way to do it and I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, the way that the paper has been conducted, we just can't support as a group and I think we'll just end it there, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cox. Councillor Neven. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I did attend the consultation the other day and raised the issue of under-registration of households across the city. We've had numerous households divided into flats, into HMOs and we have a big population that is underrepresented in the population figures that we have. I accept that the population figures are not the only factor but also in the submission it has raised that the consultation was done during the local election period and that may have had an impact on responses, etc. So whilst I would not want to have to increase by March, I do think that there may be areas for challenge that I certainly will be submitting. Thank you, Councillor Neven. Anybody else would like to make a comment? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of very quick points. Bottom of page 14, I just hope that before the submission is sent to the Boundary Commission that the relevant new MPs, whoever they may be, will be updated and that will be sent in. I take Councillor Cox's point but I would also suggest that there's nothing to prevent his group from sending in their own submission. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor McMillan. Councillor Dent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Having read this paper, I actually think it's a pretty good paper and I agree with its conclusion. In terms of the number of councils, there's many things about South End Council that I would say doesn't work as well as it should or I'd like it to. I think actually the number of councillors in this chamber is one of those things that I think we've got right. I wouldn't want to see fewer councillors on the basis that I wouldn't want the burden of casework, which some of my colleagues will know quite well can be considerable, to grow on individual councillors. But at the same time, I don't see any particular need to increase the numbers. I think that this council functions in that respect quite adequately and I'm quite happy to support this paper and its recommendations. Thank you, Councillor Dent. If there's no further comments, Councillor Gilbert, can you sum up please? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As has been noted, there's nothing in terms of this paper that precludes individuals or groups from seeking to put forward their own submissions. However, in terms of engagement with members, I would just point out that after an initial briefing, there have been articles in the March, April, May and June council and newsletters, a dedicated intranet page set up since March, a live online survey for councillors to contribute to, regular communication, including on the 1st of March, 18th of March, 27th of March and 15th of May. All these pieces of communication, I would also point out, occurred and were planned under the previous administration. So I feel that whilst engagement has been more limited than we'd like, no doubt owing to the pressures that we were all under during that time period, I do believe that councillors have had an adequate opportunity to have their say, and I do believe we should support the recommendations of the report. Thank you, Councillor Gilbert. I will now ask the Chief Exec to conduct a vote. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we'll just get that up on the screen. So if you're in favour of the report, please vote yes. If you are against, please vote no. And the voting is now open. [Voting] Okay, we'll now close the vote. Thank you. So those in support 27, those not in support 17, and that will be noted on the submission that's put forward. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chief Exec. It does conclude the business of the council this evening, but before I do actually close it, I've got a couple of thanks to say. Councillor Harland, thank you very much for the gestures on the golf day at Thorpe Hall. You worked the crowd wonderfully. The auction under control, I think you ought to be congratulated for that because I really appreciate your efforts to that. And Councillor Mulroney, to see you wander around that table with a big box of raffle tickets was a sight to be seen, but again, thank you very much. This concludes the end of the business. Please turn off the website.