About the consultation – Arlesey community governance review (stage 1)
Consultation closed: Tuesday 14 June 2022
Consultation opened: Wednesday 20 April 2022
We wanted your views on a process called a community governance review, for the parish of Arlesey.
A community governance review enables us to review and put in place or make changes to community governance systems and structures, including:
- changing the boundaries of existing parishes
- creating new parishes
- merging parishes
- grouping parishes to work together
- changing the name of a parish council
- changing how many councillors the parish has
- sub-dividing parishes into smaller parish wards
- changing existing parish ward boundaries
In this instance, we asked you specifically for your views on a proposal by Arlesey Town Council to change the number of parish councillors from 12 to 7, which is an effective working number for a council. Fewer than 7 councillors can be difficult for decision making, if a councillor cannot attend a meeting.
It is a chance to have your say on how your local community is represented as part of the democratic process.
This community governance review was requested by Arlesey Town Council after it had difficulty attracting enough candidates to stand for election at the 2019 parish elections.
How does the consultation process work?
The Association of Electoral Administrators recommends two stages of consultation be undertaken for the review in line with the approach adopted by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE).
The first stage is asking people for their initial views. The second stage of consultation is to gather thoughts on a preferred option. We're required to consult with local government electors in the area under review as well as any other individuals and organisations (including local authorities such as parish councils) who “appear to have an interest in the review”. We must consider all representations (written views) that we receive during the review’s period of consultation and will make all representations available for public viewing.
First consultation stage
At this stage, we sought your thoughts and feedback on the current arrangements and in particular the number of parish councillors. This consultation was open for 8 weeks.
A report of the feedback will then be compiled and presented to our General Purposes Committee for its consideration on 25 August 2022. At this meeting, the committee will agree on draft proposals that will form the basis for the second stage of public consultation.
Second consultation stage
This stage will follow after the General Purposes Committee meeting. We will be consulting on the draft proposals for change and it will be open for 12 weeks.
A report of the feedback will then be compiled and presented to our General Purposes Committee and a final decision about changes will be made by the General Purposes Committee on 15 December 2022. It will be implemented in time for the next elections for town and parish councils in May 2023.
All consultation responses will be logged. Responses received from parish councils/residents’ groups will be highlighted as such and will be assumed to be an official response on behalf of the whole parish council/residents’ group.