Agenda and minutes

To record apologies for absence and the attendance of substitute members. 

There were no apologies for absence.

To adopt and sign as a correct record the Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2023.

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2023 as a correct record and agree that the chair sign them as such.

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests, other registerable interests and non-registerable interests or any conflicts of interest in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive notification of any matters which the chair determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chair. 

There was no urgent business or announcements from the chair.

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak. 

Councillor Hayleigh Gascoigne had registered to address the committee on agenda item 7 – Local Government Boundary Commission for England review of Vale of White Horse District Council warding arrangements.

To elect a vice chair for the remainder of the municipal year 2023-2024.

Following Councillor Diana Lugova’s appointment to Cabinet, the committee was asked to elect a vice-chair for the remainder of the municipal year 2023/24.

RESOLVED: to appoint Councillor Max Thompson as vice-chair for the remainder of the municipal year 2023/24.

To consider the report of the Head of Legal and Democratic on warding arrangements for Vale of White Horse District Council and to agree and recommend a submission for consideration by Council.

The committee considered the report of the head of legal and democratic on warding arrangements for Vale of White Horse District Council including a summary of the representations which had been received from members since the publication of the agenda alongside a revised warding map.

Councillor Hayleigh Gascoigne addressed the committee. Overall, she was in favour of the proposal and the impact it would have on her ward – Blewbury and Harwell. She spoke in favour of the presumption for multi-member wards as it allowed two people to share the workload, brought different members strengths to the role and, in her view, enhanced both voter representation and the experience of being an elected councillor. Councillor Gascoigne also highlighted that the natural community identity for her ward sat with Didcot but that as this was in South Oxfordshire District Council it could not form part of this review. She did ask that this was considered in future boundary reviews.

In response to the points raised by Councillor Gascoigne, officers advised that the council could consider requesting a boundary review but that this would require agreement from South Oxfordshire District Council before consideration. The committee suggested that Councillor Gascoigne liaised with officers on progressing this request.

The committee asked the Democratic Services Manager if any thought had been given to the benefits of multi member wards when producing the report. The Democratic Services Manager confirmed that no thought had been given to this as no member comments had been received in advance of the production of the report.

The Democratic Services Manager highlighted to the committee that this stage of the review allowed the council to submit their proposals to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England but that this was not the council’s review, and the Commission would make the final decision. Officers had considered the current warding patterns, the previous review documents and projected electorate figures when compiling the report. The Democratic Services Manager went on to advise that the revised map which had been circulated was to correct the incorrect boundary which had been drawn for Wootton and Marcham wards. He advised that the report content was correct and unaffected by the corrections made to the map.

The committee noted that previously a request to increase the number of councillors for Vale of White Horse District Council had been rejected by the Commission but that the ward review proposal proposed an increase in the number of councillors to 39 to achieve electoral equality.

The committee thanked officers for their work on the report and also noted that a number of members had now responded to the report. The committee asked how best to proceed in order that the comments received since the report had been drafted could be included. Officers recommended that the committee could request officers to redraft the report taking these comments into account.

The committee asked officers to confirm how the projected figures for the 2029 electorate had been calculated. The Democratic Services Manager confirmed the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.