Issue - meetings

The Leader moved the item noting it has been 20 years since the last electoral review of the District. The first stage is to consider the appropriate number of Councillors from 2023 and make a submission to the Boundary Commission for them to consider. Members received a briefing on this in the autumn of 2020 and the draft submission recommending no less than 48 Councillors has been subject to consultation with Group Leaders. The Boundary Commission will commence a public consultation in March where the public, political groups and others can put forward submissions for Warding patterns. The Commission will decide based on several criteria including the number of members required to carry out statutory functions, service committees, their role in the community and the forecast population figures up to 2027. This solely relates to District boundaries and is independent of a Parliamentary boundary review.  The item was seconded by Councillor Webster who reiterated that political parties and individuals can make comments directly to the Commission during the consultation phase.

Discussion was held on the anomalies in numbers where some areas forecast an increase in housing but a decrease in the number of electors. This is due to competing electoral trends where the number of voters per household is going down for various reasons, unrelated to the number of houses being built and having a greater impact than the number of houses becoming available.  The Leader also noted that the recommended number of Councillors is heavily dependent on Warding patterns meeting the criteria from the Commission, so there may be slight variations.  The housing projection figures have been provided by planning policy officers who have looked at forecasts for housing development and population change to profile development. The outcome is consistent with similar Local Authorities who have a similar population size and housing projections.

Members discussed the timing of the response to the Commission compared with the timing of the Governance Review. The Leader noted that the two reviews are following separate timescales and it was important to respond to the Boundary Commission so that they can have a baseline from which to start their considerations. If the Governance Review results in changes to governance structures, this will be reported to the Commission, to factor into their decision.

Discussion was held on whether the submission offers a well evidenced case for reaching a recommendation of 48 Members. The Leader clarified that the submission is based on consideration of Mid Sussex’s circumstances and the report makes clear how the conclusion has been made. He also clarified that housing figures up to 2027 are used at the request of the Commission. It was noted that a comparison to County Councillors is also not possible as boundary reviews of each Authority are carried out entirely separately.

Councillor Brown tabled an amendment to the recommendations, seeking to refer the report to the Scrutiny Committee and seeking evidence for alternative Council size submissions. This was seconded by Councillor Eves who urged that the submission be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8