Agenda item

Pursuant to the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 12, Council will consider a motion, notice of which has been given by Councillor M E Stephenson.

In accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 12.5, (Professional Advice of the Council’s Statutory Officers on the Motion) requires the Council’s three statutory officers (i.e. Monitoring Officer, Section 151 Officer and Head of Paid Service), once the Motion has been accepted as being valid, to produce a formal Advisory Note detailing any necessary initial professional advice in relation to the implications for the Council of that Motion. That Advisory Note will focus on implications for the Council relating to budgetary, constitutional or legislative requirements or staffing matters.

In this instance, the Council’s Statutory Officers have each indicated that they do not need to provide any such professional advice and that therefore an Advisory Note(s) does not need to be produced on this occasion.

Council had before it the following motion, notice of which had been given by Councillor Mark Stephenson pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 12:-

“That Full Council -

(1)    notes that:

a. Parish and Town Councils  are an established and valued form of local democracy with an important role to play in both rural urban, areas.

b. the District currently has 27 Town and Parish Councils with a cumulative electorate of almost 75,000 and that Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick are not currently parished and the cumulative electorate for those areas is almost 45,000.  As such, about 62% of residents have one of 27 Town and Parish Council to represent them and their interests at a very local level.  38% of the District’s residents do not have that representation.

c.  between 1891 and 1974, Great Clacton (later renamed Clacton as it also covered Clacton-on-Sea) had its own specific tier of local government, and the area of this tier of local government was expanded in 1934 to take in the then former parish of Little Holland (later renamed Holland-on-Sea). 

d. since 1974, with the abolition of Clacton Urban District Council and creation of this District Council, there has been no distinct Local Council representation for specifically Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick.  

e. it has been more than 25 years since the electors of Jaywick Sands last had the chance to express their view on the issue of a parish for that Town.  

f.   the nature/responsibilities of local government has changed over the years and, in recent years, there has been a distinct impetus to devolve power from Whitehall to local councils and communities that will further change that landscape. 

g. the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 devolved the power to take decisions about matters such as the creation of parishes and their electoral arrangements to the District Council for its area, through a process called a community governance review which has, at its heart, engagement with local people in the defined review area and that representations received in connection with the review are taken into by the District Council.

(2)   requests that proposals for a community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick be prepared and submitted to the next ordinary meeting of the Council to enable Council to determine whether to proceed with such a review, the timetable for a review and the resourcing of such a review.”

Prior to the commencement of the meeting the Council’s statutory officers had confirmed that they did not need to provide any professional advice in relation to this motion and that therefore an Advisory Note pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 12.5 had not needed to be produced.

Councillor Stephenson formally moved the motion and Councillor Bakerformally seconded the motion.

In accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 12.6 Councillor Stephenson then explained the purpose of the Motion and Council proceeded to debate it.

Councillors Bray, P B Honeywood, Griffiths, Scott, Everett, Amos, Doyle, Barrett, Baker, Ferguson and Thompsonspoke during the debate on this matter.

Councillor Stephenson’s motion on being put to the vote was declared CARRIED.