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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 18.10, 18th Floor, 64 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QP

Contact: Reuben Segal, Acting Head of Committee and Governance Services  Tel: 020 7641 3160; Email:  rsegal@westminster.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Membership

The Director of Law to note any changes to the membership

Minutes:

1.1      The Committee noted that Councillor Melvyn Caplan had replaced Councillor Robert Rigby.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations by Members and Officers of the existence and nature of any personal or prejudicial interests in matters on this agenda.

Minutes:

2.1      Councillor David Boothroyd declared that in respect of Item 4 he lived within the Marble Arch BID area.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 206 KB

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 27 February 2019.

Minutes:

3.1      That the Chairman, with the consent of the members present, signed the minutes of the meeting held on 27 February 2019 as a true and correct record of proceedings.

4.

Local Government Boundary Commission (LGBC) Review of Electoral Wards within the Westminster City Council boundary pdf icon PDF 316 KB

Report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Communications

Additional documents:

Minutes:

4.1      The Director of Policy, Performance and Communications and the Evaluation and Performance Manager introduced a report which provided progress with respect to the Local Government Boundary Commission (LGBC) review of electoral wards within the Westminster City Council boundary.

 

4.2      The Committee was informed that the review was now in its second phase and considered warding arrangements which required the redrawing of some or all of Westminster’s wards to produce an equitable number of electors. This phase required interested parties to submit proposals for ward numbers and boundaries directly to the LGBC. The Committee made some minor amendments to the report and expressed its thanks to officers for all their work in developing the modelling tool used to forecast future elector numbers. In response to a question from the Committee it was confirmed that the number of electors used were those forecast for 2024. These figures had been submitted to the LGBC in Phase 1 and accepted as the base for ward boundary considerations.

 

4.3      The Chairman introduced a submission from the Majority Party setting out proposals for warding arrangements based on the LGBC’s proposed council size of 54 elected members. The Committee was interested to learn how the LGBC would respond to the submission. It was explained that it would depend on the number of submissions made, however the LGBC would be provided with the tool developed by the Council to forecast future elector numbers which had granular mapping capabilities at the postcode level.

 

4.4      The Committee held a detailed discussion on the submission which included the level of consultation undertaken with the local community, how the forecasts were calculated, the retention of three-member wards and the redrawing of ward boundaries. It was confirmed that the deadline for interested parties to submit proposals to the LGBC was 3 June 2019. A third phase of consultations was due to run from 30 July to 7 October 2019 to allow local residents to submit comments. Under section 23(7) of Westminster City Council’s Constitution Councillor Boothroyd requested that a recorded vote be taken on the recommendations.

 

RESOLVED: (For – Councillors Mitchell, Caplan and Swaddle; Against – Councillor Boothroyd)

 

1)          That the submission, as tabled, discussed and agreed, should be submitted as the Council’s submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England on warding arrangements;

 

2)          That the Committee instructed the Chief Executive to formally submit it to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England including the relevant electronic modelling; and

 

3)          That the submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England be circulated to all members.