Agenda item

Recalculation of Political Proportionality of the Council and Appointments to the Committees of the Council for the 2022/23 Municipal Year (C/22/2)

To note the changes to the membership of political groups on the Council and the subsequent recalculation of political proportionality, and approve the group nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees as outlined at Appendix A for the 2022-23 municipal year.

 

Appendix A to follow.

 

Minutes:

The Chief Executive explained to Members that following recent changes in group membership on the Council, political proportionality had required recalculation by Officers. These changes would subsequently alter the number of places on the Council’s committees for the 2022-23 municipal year. The Council was asked to note the changes to political groups and subsequent recalculation of political proportionality, and to approve the group nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees for 2022-23.

 

As a result of the changes to groups, membership of the Council was now as follows:

 

Conservative: 17

Labour: 9

Independent Group: 3

Unaligned Members: 2 (ungrouped)

 

The amended group membership required the number of committee places to be re-evaluated to satisfy Section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, which placed a duty on local authorities to allocate seats on Ordinary Committees of the Council between the political groups, in accordance with the following principles:

 

a)     That not all the seats on the body to which appointments are being made are allocated to the same political group;

 

b)     That the majority of seats on each committee are allocated to a particular political group if the number of persons belonging to that group is a majority of the authority’s membership;

 

c)     That subject to (a) and (b), when allocating seats to a political group, the total number of their seats across all the ordinary committees of the Council, must reflect their proportion of the authority’s membership; and

 

d)     Subject to (a) to (c), that the number of seats on each committee is as far as possible in proportion to the group’s membership of the authority.

 

To accurately reflect these requirements and the political balance of the Council, Officers had altered the number of committee places available to as follows:

 

Planning Committee: 9 (no change)

Licensing Committee: 11 (no change)

Scrutiny Committee: 7 (reduction in 1 place)

Policy Review Committee: 7 (reduction by 1 place)

Audit and Governance Committee: 7 (reduction by 1 place)

 

Nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees for the 2022-23 municipal year were given in full by Members at the meeting and noted by Officers. These appointments were proposed, seconded and a vote taken.

 

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.         To note the changes to the membership of political groups on the Council and the subsequent recalculation of political proportionality on the Council’s Committees; and

 

2.         to approve the group nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees for the 2022-23 municipal year, as set out below:

 

Executive (no change)

 

Leader (Conservative)

Councillor Mark Crane

Deputy Leader (Conservative)

Councillor Richard Musgrave

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Cliff Lunn

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Tim Grogan

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor David Buckle

 

Planning Committee (9 places)

 

Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Mark Topping

Vice Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Charles Richardson

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Keith Ellis

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Ian Chilvers

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Georgina Ashton

 

 

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Bob Packham

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Paul Welch

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor John Duggan

 

 

Councillor (Independent)

Councillor Don Mackay

 

Licensing Committee (11 places)

 

Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Richard Sweeting

Vice Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Judith Chilvers

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Ian Chilvers

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Chris Pearson

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor John Mackman

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Mike Jordan

 

 

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Paul Welch

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor John Duggan

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Stephanie Duckett

 

 

Councillor (Independent)

Councillor Mary McCartney

 

 

Councillor (Unaligned)

Councillor John Cattanach

 

 

Scrutiny Committee (7 places)

 

Chair (Labour)

Councillor Steve Shaw-Wright

Vice Chair (Labour)

Councillor Wendy Nichols

 

 

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Andrew Lee

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor J Chilvers

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Richard Sweeting

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Keith Ellis

 

 

Councillor (Independent)

Councillor John McCartney

 

Policy Review Committee (7 places)

 

Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Chris Pearson

Vice Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Mike Jordan

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Charles Richardson

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Karl Arthur

 

 

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Bob Packham

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Jennifer Shaw-Wright

 

 

Councillor (Independent)

Councillor Mary McCartney

 

Audit and Governance Committee (7 places)

 

Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Karl Arthur

Vice Chair (Conservative)

Councillor Georgina Ashton

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor John Mackman

Councillor (Conservative)

Councillor Andrew Lee

 

 

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor Keith Franks

Councillor (Labour)

Councillor John Duggan

 

 

Councillor (Unaligned)

Councillor Neil Reader

 

REASON FOR DECISION:

 

To meet legislative requirements and to enable the proper functioning of the Council in the 2022-23 municipal year. 

 

 

Supporting documents: