Agenda item

Report by the Chairman of the Governance Committee Working Group.

The Committee is asked to consider the recommendations of the Working Group set up in June 2018 to consider a request from the member for Lindfield & High Weald for his division to fall entirely within one County Local Committee.

40.1   The Committee considered a report by the Chairman of the Working Group set up in June 2018 to review the impact of changes to the configuration of County Local Committees (CLCs) introduced from May 2017 and to consider a request from Mr Lea, the member for Lindfield & High Weald, for his division to fall entirely within one CLC (copy appended to the signed minutes). 

40.2   Mr High, the Chairman of the Working Group, attended the meeting and introduced the report.  Mrs Millson and Mrs Purnell, the other two members of the Group, were also in attendance.  Mr High commented that, whilst the Group had had sympathy for Mr Lea’s request, recreating three CLCs in the Mid Sussex area would not prevent Mr Lea sitting on more than one committee.  It was not possible to move the whole of Mr Lea’s division into one CLC without negative impacts, particularly due to the community ties within it.  The Working Group felt that any adjustment to the number of CLCs in Mid Sussex should not be done in isolation from the rest of the county and it proposed a full review of CLCs to be carried out after the local elections in 2019.  Mr High particularly commended the proposed development of best practice guidance, set out in paragraph 2.6 and recommendation (3) of the report, to the Committee.

40.3   Mr Acraman expressed support for returning to three CLCs in Mid Sussex on the basis of the length of agendas of the current two committees which meant that the business was not covered adequately.  In his view, in rural areas, too large a CLC meant that there was little common knowledge or shared interest in issues across the whole area.  Mr Acraman highlighted the degree of local support from county, district and parish councillors for a third, central CLC.  He also questioned the resource cost of £8,500 in paragraph 3.2 of the report which he felt was too high.  The Head of Democratic Services said the estimate was based on the cost of Democratic Services officer time rather than meeting venues and travel costs and reminded members that staff time off in lieu for evening work was still a cost to the service.

40.4   Mrs Millson said the Working Group was recommending the exploration of other ways of engaging the public and stakeholders including services calling public meetings on issues of local concern.  The Leader agreed that in some cases taking a contentious issue to a CLC might not be the best option and said the executive would look at whether using CLCs in those instances was the best use of resources.

40.5   The Committee thanked the Working Group and supporting officers for producing an excellent report.  Whilst understanding the issues raised, members supported the Group’s view that to change the pattern of CLCs in Mid Sussex in isolation from the rest of the county would create anomalies and that no change should be made in advance of a full review of CLCs from May 2019.

40.6   The Chairman informed members that terms of reference for the review of all CLCs together with proposals for the make-up of the Working Group to carry out that work would be brought to the next meeting of the Committee.

40.7   Resolved –

(1)     That the Governance Committee should carry out a full review of all County Local Committees after May 2019, to focus on the points set out at paragraph 2.7 of the report, and that the proposed terms of reference of the review and membership of the group to consider it be brought to the next meeting of the Committee;

(2)     That there should be no change at this stage to the current configuration of CLCs in Mid Sussex, including the split of the Lindfield & High Weald division across two CLCs; and

(3)     That the Cabinet Member for Safer, Stronger Communities should develop best practice guidance for CLCs, to include reference to the points set out at paragraph 2.6 of the report.