Issue - meetings

Note: The deadline for amendments is midnight, Monday 2 March 2020.

To consider a report of the Governance Committee on Boundary Commission Review, Part 2 (Warding Patterns) – attached.

 Procedural motion on behalf of Upminster and Cranham Residents Associations’ Group that a revision to the Group’s amendment be accepted for debate CARRIED by 50 votes to 0.

Procedural motion on behalf of Independent Residents’ Group that the Group’s amendment be dealt with as two separate amendments NOT CARRIED by 33 votes to 17.

Amendment on behalf of Independent Residents’ Group NOT CARRIED by 28 votes to 11.

Amendment on behalf of Upminster and Cranham Residents Associations’ Group NOT CARRIED by 28 votes to 17.

Amendment on behalf of Labour Group NOT CARRIED by 31 votes to 13.

Deemed motion on behalf of Administration CARRIED by 36 votes to 14.

A report of the Governance Committee asked Council to agree its preferred option to be submitted to the review of Havering’s local government electoral arrangements that was currently being undertaken by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The Committee had considered a number of options and had recommended to Council Option 4A as shown attached to these minutes.

Councillor Ramsey raised a point of clarification on the minutes of the meeting of the Governance Committee held on 20 February 2020 which were included within the papers for the Council meeting. It was noted that he did not say that Heaton and Pettits wards were far apart politically; he had in fact said that the wards concerned were far apart geographically.

Deemed motion on behalf of the Administration

That the report be adopted and its recommendations carried into effect.

Amendment on behalf of the Independent Residents’ Group

This Council agrees with Option 4A but rejects the proposal to divide the existing Rainham and Wennington ward into two, to create a one member ward north of New Road (A1306) and a two member ward south of New Road (replaced with a 3 Member ward known as ‘Rainham & Wennington) because it appears the proposal is made for partisan political advantage contrary to Boundary Commission criteria, and because:-

•          There is no special reason for a one member ward in this area, as its clearly part of Rainham and the ward has existed since the LB Havering was formed in 1964 and all residents consider themselves as living in Rainham, with the River Ingrebourne acting as a natural border.

•          The social and cultural connections between both sides of New Road are strong. For example, all residents consider Rainham Village Conservation Area and buildings a part of their heritage and attend Christmas and May Fayre’s organised by council supported Rainham Association for Village Events.

•          The dissecting New Road is easily crossed, meaning it’s a porous soft border rather than a hard border.

•          The main connecting road is Upminster Road North and South which is a busy bus and pedestrian route through a traffic light crossing.

•          Residents north of New Road use Tesco Extra in Rainham Village and the High Street in the south side for most of their local convenience shopping as there is only a few small shops on the north side.

•          There are three primary schools and a secondary school attended by children throughout the ward.

•          The north side contains about 45% of the population, so well above the 33% for an equal division of the ward. Therefore to equalise numbers Option 4A proposes dividing the north side between residents East and West of Upminster Road North, but this undermines the logic behind creating a separate ward north of New Road. How can the northern side be deemed a distinct area and then divided in an arbitrary way, with part of it remaining part of the south side?

•          One member wards should be the exception  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64

Consideration was given to the report of Andrew Beesely, Head of Democratic Services detailing the impact of the Boundary Commission Review and the need for members of the Governance Committee to determine and recommend their preferred option to Full Council.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) is undertaking a review of the London Borough of Havering’s local government electoral arrangements. The outcome of the review will be implemented in readiness for the 2022 Council elections.

The review forms two parts. The first part determines the Council size. In September 2019, Full Council recommended to the Commission that it retain its existing cohort size of 54. The Commission subsequently informed the Council that it was minded to agree to the proposal.

The second part (Part 2) is concerned with determining the warding arrangements in terms of the number of wards and the number of representatives of each ward which make up the Council, based on statutory criteria.

 An officer working group has prepared a number of options for the Governance Committee to consider.

The Chief Executive, Andrew Blake-Herbert, together with the Head of Democratic Services gave a presentation to the Committee

The Electoral Review undertaken by the LGBCE will take into account the number of Councillors in the Borough and the warding arrangements.  The warding arrangements will deal with the number of wards, the ward boundaries, the number of councillors elected to each ward and the names of each ward.

Submissions for Part 2 of the process dealing with the warding patterns must be made by 09/03/2020.  Officers have attended training with the LGBCE and the early indication has been that there is a tolerance of + or – 2 Councillors to the number of 54 for the purposes of the Part 2 process.

Four options for Part 2 have been made available on the Council’s website and members of the public can feed into this and make recommendations to the Boundary Commission supporting any of these options or indeed suggesting their own. When the LGBCE determine the warding patterns they take into account the following criteria:

·       Electoral Equity for Voters

·       Community Identities and interests and

·       Effective and convenient Local Government.

The officer working group produced a suite of 4 options for the consideration of the Governance Committee though there may be others put forward by members of the public and community groups etc.  These will all be considered and it was noted that the deadline for public submissions was on 02/03/2020.

The Governance Committee will be asked to recommend its preferred option to Full Council on 4^th March, 2020.

Officers have used current and predicted data/GSI mapping technology to formulate the options.  Data and maps are available on the London Borough of Havering website.  Consideration has been given to past and present warding patterns; polling districts; approved developments; population forecasts; key local infrastructure; natural boundaries, such as railways, rivers and roads; public health data; Ordinance Survey maps; and on the ground sense checks.

An overview of all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3