Agenda item

To set out the requirements and procedure should the Council agree to undertake a community governance review of the Greenham Parish consisting of Common Ward and Sandleford Ward, in accordance with the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and associated government guidance.

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 12) which set out the requirements and procedure to undertake a community governance review (CGR) of the Greenham Parish (consisting of Common Ward and Sandleford Ward), following a formal request from Greenham Parish Council and in accordance with the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and associated government guidance. An amended version of the report and Appendix B had been circulated on 5 May 2022.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Howard Woollaston and seconded by Councillor Tony Vickers:

“That the Council:

(1) proceeds with a CGR of the parish of Greenham, in accordance with the requirements of the 2007 Act and associated guidance, as described in the report.

(2) approves the terms of reference in respect of the community governance review, including the proposed timetable, as set out in Appendix B to the report.

(3) delegates authority to the Governance and Ethics Committee to consider and approve draft proposals following initial consultation.

(4) delegates authority to the Service Lead – Legal & Democratic Services to approve minor amendments and/or typographical amendments pertaining to the final recommendations prior to submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission, save for the power to make substantive amendments which is delegated to the Governance and Ethics Committee.

(5) delegates authority to the Service Lead - Legal & Democratic Services to exercise powers under the 2007 Act in relation to the CGR.

Councillor Woollaston in introducing the report referred to previous expectations that Sandleford would be developed by 2023. This had resulted in Councillor Tony Vickers being elected as a Ward Member for Sandleford by default given there were only six electors at the time and he was unopposed. Councillor Woollaston believed the proposals in the report would have cross party support, whilst noting that the recent appeal decision to grant planning consent for Sandleford could result in this decision being revisited for either the 2027 or 2031 local elections.

Councillor Vickers added further to this by noting that the issue began with the allocation of Newbury Racecourse and Sandleford as strategic housing sites in the 2012 Local Plan.Councillor Vickers highlighted that around 90% of the 1,500 new homes at Newbury Racecourse were in Greenham and already had a separate Polling District. It was his understanding that it was a simple matter to transform a Polling District to a Parish Ward and that it would be uncontroversial given that around 2,000 voters would live there by May 2023 (one third of the total number of voters in Greenham).

Outline consent for two thirds of the expected 1,500 homes in Sandleford had been granted only the week prior to this Council meeting, and Councillor Vickers confirmed that half of these would be in Newbury. He had first raised the matter of the impact on Parish boundaries in 2012 with the (then) Chairman of Greenham Parish Council, and they had agreed that Sandleford needed to be under a single local council to ensure a cohesive community. Councillor Vickers spoke to officers regarding the possibility of a CGR at that time, but a request to review the District Ward boundaries as a result of the increase to Greenham’s population was not submitted until 2015.

Councillor Vickers advised that Parish electoral arrangements could not be adjusted until the district review had been completed. Weeks before the Boundary Commission finalised their proposals in December 2017 the planners had been insistent that Sandleford could deliver 500 homes by 2023. This had resulted in the allocation of five Parish Councillors to the Greenham part of the Newbury Wash Common District Ward early in 2018 but no candidates were put forward for those positions in the local elections in 2019.

Councillor Vickers argued that, without this Motion, the same situation would occur in 2023 (and possibly in 2027) as he found it unlikely that enough new homes would be built in the Greenham part of the development until after that time. He noted that other developments could come forward in the current Sandleford Parish Ward in the meantime and so it should not be removed entirely, but the reallocation of residents to the new Racecourse Ward was a sensible resolution to this matter.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.