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The Civic Affairs Committee agreed
(unanimous):

a)   
To progress the CGR to the second phase of
consultation, to include the following proposed options, and the
likely implications of each:

·      
Electoral arrangements - the number of councillors to represent each of the existing
parishes in a new grouped parish council. This could be reduced to
9 to bring it in line with national recommendations and to more
closely match existing levels of parish council responsibility: 6
to represent Great Abington and 3 to represent Little Abington.
This option would help to resolve the issues of recruitment of
councillors and inquorate meetings, raised by both parish councils
in requesting the CGR.

·      
Parish council name - to gauge whether the name preferred in phase 1 of the
consultation ‘Abington Parish Council’ should be the
name adopted by a new grouped parish council

·      
Impact on existing assets and
arrangements - to ask for views on the
effects, if any, on such things as democracy and representation,
finance, efficiencies and local services

·      
Impact on community identity and cohesion
- to ask for views on the anticipated
impact on the identity of each community and their shared
interests
 

b)   
To delegate to the Head of Transformation, HR and
Corporate Services the authority to sign off the consultation
material and engagement methods for the phase 2 consultation,
subject to reasonable adjustments following comments from the
parish councils involved.