Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were received for the meeting.

No declarations of interests were made.

[For approval]

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 2 May 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting]

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

[To provide an update on the progress of the community governance review and to make recommendations to Council thereon]

Martyn Sargeant, Head of Democratic Support presented the update report on the community governance review in relation to Tettenhall Wightick and Tettenhall Regis and for the citywide review. He reported that the consultation work did not provide a conclusive clear steer on whether to hold a referendum on the proposal to introduce a parish council for Tettenhall.  Consequently, legal advice had been sought from a QC.

Kevin O’Keefe, Director of Governance reported on the advice received.  The crux of the issue was whether there had been sufficient consultation during the review.  The QC’s advice was that the consultation had been sufficient and he did not suggest any amendments to the proposed recommendations.  He did not consider that a referendum was necessary, given the consultation already undertaken.

Cllr Andrew Johnson drew the Advisory Group’s attention to the options and legal implications sections of the report and to the advice from the QC. He also reported that a conclusion from the consultations was that the majority of residents would favour a parish council that delivered necessary services but the vast majority would not be willing to pay the increased costs. Given the level of support for the Council holding a referendum on whether to implement a parish council he felt that the outcome of a vote would not be in doubt.

Cllr Wendy Thompson reported that she felt that there had been sufficient publicity about the CGR. There was also no doubt about there being a feeling of wanting more independence, or a strong feeling against having a parish council model.  However, when residents considered the costs involved they became less supportive. The issue of costs were considered carefully and in an area where a lot of people are on low incomes she was not surprised with the outcome.

Other members of the Advisory Group agreed that from the results of the consultations and survey work, the recommendation not to proceed with implementing a parish council for the wards on Tettenhall Regis and Tettenhall Wightwick was the right decision.

Cllr Stephen Simkins added that the Council should not lose sight of the feelings of identity and pride that residents of Tettenhall Regis and Tettenhall Wightwick have in their area, and it should not forget those who participated in the review.

Cllr Roger Lawrence commented that he was not opposed to parish councils. It needed to be recognised that there were issues regarding the costs and sustainability of service provision.  He also referred to the Council’s 2017 Local Government Association peer review that recommended the Council do more work on community governance which tied into some of the feedback from the review.

The Chair invited Cyril Randles from the Tettenhall Neighbourhood Forum to comment. He stated that he was disappointed but not surprised with the outcome which he accepted. He added that there was a feeling that not enough representation of local views were getting through at the moment and that there was a latent demand for local views to be heard.

Resolved:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.