The Administration Committee of Eastleigh Council is scheduled to meet on Monday, 13 October 2025, to discuss a community governance review and the annual review of the code of conduct. The meeting will be held at Eastleigh House. Members of the public are invited to attend and speak on general items or individual agenda items.

Community Governance Review

The committee will be considering the outcome of the second consultation of the Community Governance Review 2025, which looked at merging Boyatt Wood Parish Council and Eastleigh Town Council.

Following the publication of the Devolution White Paper in December 2024, Eastleigh Town Council asked Allbrook Parish Council and Boyatt Wood Parish Council to consider a community governance review with the aim of merging the three councils to form one larger town council. Allbrook Parish Council declined to take part in the review.

The second public consultation commenced on 7 July and ran for eight weeks, concluding on 31 August 2025. Key stakeholders including the Business Improvement District (BID), borough, parish and town council Clerks, the MP for Eastleigh, the MP for Hamble Valley and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England were also notified of the review.

The consultation asked the community to consider the governance arrangements for a newly proposed larger Eastleigh Town Council incorporating the areas of Eastleigh Town and Boyatt Wood. According to the agenda, the council received 51 responses to the stage 2 consultation.

The report pack states that the committee is asked to consider the outcome of the Community Governance Review and decide whether to propose to council that Boyatt Wood Parish Council and Eastleigh Town Council should merge.

The committee will consider recommending to the council that Boyatt Wood Parish Council be merged with Eastleigh Town Council resulting in a larger Eastleigh Town Council with the following governance arrangements:

• 22 councillors
• 7 wards:
  • Blenheim and Barton Park
  • Boyatt Wood East
  • Boyatt Wood West
  • Brookwood
  • Cable
  • Chestnut
  • Nightingale and North Stoneham

The report pack notes that if a decision is taken to merge the Parish and Town Councils; there will be a cost associated with any changes necessary to the electoral register system, council tax system and staff time, estimated to be £50,000.

Code of Conduct Annual Review

The committee will be considering the Code of Conduct Annual Review 2024/25. The report covers the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. According to the report pack, the Localism Act 2011 required local authorities to adopt Codes of Conduct for governing the behaviour of Councillors and new procedures for dealing with complaints that Councillors have breached this Code of Conduct.

The Service Director of Governance and Support (Monitoring Officer) is required to report annually on the complaints received and the action taken.

According to the report pack, during the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, a total of six formal complaints were received; four complaints in respect of three Borough Councillors and two formal complaints regarding two Parish Councillors.

The report pack states that all complaints were reviewed by the Monitoring Officer in line with the Process for dealing with complaint that a Councillor has breached the Code of Conduct . Prior to concluding the initial assessment the Monitoring Officer sought the views of one of the Independent Persons (IPs). After initial assessment, none of the complaints were concluded to be a breach of the Code of Conduct.

The report pack provides a summary of the complaints received during 2024/25:

• Complaint from an observer that a Councillor's tone in a social media exchange with a third party was inappropriate. No investigation was undertaken, but the Councillor was reminded to ensure that the language and tone used in social media posts is appropriate and also to consider whether it is necessary to even engage and respond.
• Complaint that a Councillor had published an image of their business without consent which implied the business had political affiliations with the party. No breach was found, as the image had been shared with the Councillor by an officer. The officer was reminded that consent must be obtained before sharing images.
• Complaint that a statement read by a Councillor in response to a member of the community speaking during public participation was factually inaccurate and was not relevant to the matters raised. No breach was found, as the investigation found that the statement made was factually correct and it was necessary to ensure that Councillors had all the information necessary to consider the matter.
• Complaint that a Councillor's response to a statement read by the Chair to provide more context regarding a matter being considered was not appropriate. No breach was found, as the investigation found that the Councillor was sharing their view and opinion on a decision that had been taken.
• Complaint that a Parish Councillor's post in which they concurred with a political view on Facebook was deemed to be discriminatory. No breach was found, as the post was on the Councillor's personal Facebook account and was not deemed to be discriminatory.
• Complaint that the application of the 6 month rule¹ had not been correctly applied. No breach was found, as this was not considered a code of conduct matter.

The committee is invited to note the contents of this report and highlight any observations to the Monitoring Officer.

Other items

The agenda also includes:

• Apologies for absence
• Public participation
• Declarations of interest
• Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2025
• Exempt business
• Exempt minutes from 30 June 2025