The Governance Committee of Lewisham Council met on 18 December 2024. The meeting was scheduled to discuss the possible adoption of a number of proposed changes to the council's constitution, as well as the council's recently completed review of polling districts and places.

Review of Polling Districts and Places

Councillors were asked to consider and make recommendations on the Returning Officer's initial proposals for changes to polling districts and places, ahead of the publication of the final proposals on 10 January 2025.

The report from Electoral Services provided an overview of the proposed changes to the polling scheme in each ward, and sought feedback on any concerns raised in the representations.

The council is required to undertake a statutory review of polling districts and polling places every 5 years.

The last review was in 2021, and the current review began on 13 September 2024.

Each ward was listed in the report, along with a summary of the reasoning behind the proposed changes.

The full list of proposals, which were not included as part of this article, included maps and other supporting documentation.

Constitutional Update

The main item on the agenda was a report from the council's Monitoring Officer on a number of proposed changes to the council's constitution.

The Constitution is the document that governs how the Council makes decisions, how scrutiny operates, how the public engages with the Council and how the Council operates.

The proposed amendments relate to the following areas:

Senior Management Structure

It was proposed that an organisational chart be added to the constitution, to more clearly set out the reporting structure of the most senior officers in the council.

Scrutiny Executive Protocol

The council adopted a new Scrutiny Executive Protocol in March 2022 and this was proposed to be appended to the constitution, along with a reference to the protocol being added to article 6 of the main constitution document.

Scrutiny of health matters

Councillors were asked to consider a number of minor changes to the wording of the constitution to remove references to the now defunct right of councils to refer certain health matters to the Secretary of State.

Scheme of Delegation

The report explained that a number of inconsistencies had arisen between the council's actual management structure and the documented scheme of delegation. For example:

the schemes include authority given to the Executive Director of Community Services, a role that no longer exists.

Councillors were asked to note that the Monitoring Officer was seeking approval to make changes to the Scheme of Delegation to reflect the current management structure of the Council.

The report also proposed to clarify the process that should be followed if the Monitoring Officer needed to make immediate changes to the scheme of delegation:

This provision shall not apply where in the professional opinion of the Monitoring Officer the Constitution requires amendment without delay.

Deputations

The report noted that the constitution, in its current form, allows members of the public to make deputations to committees. It was proposed that all references to deputations be removed from the council's constitution.

Substitutes

Currently the council's constitution only allows for substitute members to be appointed in a limited number of situations. It was proposed to allow substitutes to be appointed to many more committees, including all planning committees, all licensing sub-committees, the governance committee and the standards committee.

It was proposed that for all committees where substitutes were allowed:

2 substitute members for each group to be appointed at the Annual General Meeting of the Council.

Council meetings during any Pre-election Publicity Period

It was proposed to add a new rule to the constitution that would mean that, during any pre-election period:

The meeting will only consider reports relating to the decisions needed that necessitated the calling of the meeting

Future Work Programme

The Monitoring Officer set out an indicative timetable for a full review of the constitution to be completed in time for the next Annual General Meeting of the council, scheduled for 7 May 2025.

The report explained that this holistic review was requested by the Monitoring Officer and the Mayor of Lewisham, in consultation with other senior officers and councillors.