This report confirms the position in respect of the approved community governance review for Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands and that the review will commence on 1 July 2025.  In relation to the review, the report sets out the decision of Council on 26 November 2024 (Minute 75 refers) for the review to proceed and the activities that have taken place in preparation for the review commencing.  The views of the Committee in respect of the revised draft Terms of Reference for the review are invited.  The Committee is also invited to set dates for it to meet in October 2025 and March 2026 in order to then oversee the outcome of the first stage of consultation, development of options/recommendations and (at the end of the second phase of consultation) to set out proposals for Full Council to consider in spring 2026.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive which set out the approach to the approved community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands to commence on 1 July 2025. Critical to that review was the Terms of Reference for it. A draft Terms of Reference were considered by Council on 26 November 2024 (Minute 75 refers) and, by virtue of the delegation provided to the Chief Executive, those had been revised and were set out in Appendix A of the Officer report. It was intended to publish the final Terms of Reference on 1 July 2025 to trigger the formal commencement of the community governance review.

Members were reminded of the following motion approved at its meeting on 17 September 2024 (Minute 50 refers):

“That Full Council –

(1)  notes that:

a.    Parish and Town Councils are an established and valued form of local democracy with an information role to play in both rural, and 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 Councils 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 issues 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.”

At its meeting on 26 November 2024 (Minute 75), Council then received the requested report, including draft Terms of Reference, indicative costings assessed at that stage and proposals to establish the Committee as the body that would oversee Community Governance Review matters. Council approved the following having considered that report:

“(a)      being minded to see a community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick proceed;

(b)        hereby determines the following:-

(i)         that the draft Terms of Reference for the community governance review, as set out at Appendix A to report A.6, be approved as the basis for that review;

(ii)        that the Chief Executive be authorised to adjust the Terms of Reference approved in (b)(i) above to finally be published to reflect the current position as known on 1 July 2024 in relation to matters such as the 2025/26 Parish Precepts and consequential Band D Council Tax amount in each area of the District;

(iii)       that, subject to (iv) below, Cabinet be requested to include within the recommended budget for 2025/26 the minimum sum of £48.4k to fund consultation and other expenses in respect of the community governance review and thereby authorise Officers to incur expenditure to undertake the review following approval of the budget;

(iv)       that Officers be requested to monitor the anticipated costs to deliver the review, including postage charges; to update the likely cost of the review; and to inform Cabinet to enable the sum in (c) above to be updated as necessary;

(c)        that the terms of reference for the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee be expanded, as set out in Appendix B to report A.6, to include a reference power to consider and oversee community governance reviews and to submit a final recommendation to Council following the conclusion of the review (including any proposal to discontinue the review in any particular part of the review area based on responses received);

(d)     that Council approves the delegation of functions for community governance reviews, as set out in Table 1, within this report (A.6), to be included within Part 3(X), Schedule 2 Non-Executive Executive functions for Full Council; and

(e)     that the Monitoring Officer be authorised to make the necessary changes to the Constitution to implement the Council’s decision.”

Since the above approval, the draft terms of reference had been updated to identify key demographic data around the entire review area, add an extra year to the projected electorate in the review areas (and District Council Wards) to ensure there was a five year forecast at the start of the review, updated precept levels and Band D Council Tax requirements for 2025/26 for the existing Parish and Town Councils in the District and the list of stakeholder groups to be consulted in the review. 

In addition, there had been a specific meeting for all District Councillors representing Wards in the review area to discuss the proposed review, who should be consulted during the review and different views on the idea of (a) Town Council(s) for the review area.  There was an interactive element to the briefing meeting for District Councillors and the summary of the points that were identified in that interactive session is set out at Appendix B to this report. 

Separately, there had been meetings of Clacton Town Board (representing businesses, education providers, health providers and voluntary sector organisations in the Town) and Tendring Together (being an event co-ordinated by ‘Community Voluntary Sector Tendring’) with a range of community and voluntary organisations working in the review area.  In addition, a stall was held at the Sports Conference organised by this Council on 19 May 2025 for organisations involved in sport and activity provision in the District (including the review area).  From those events the list of stakeholder organisations had been expanded and contact details obtained. 

The terms of reference included the following text:

“The District Council would expect there to be a minimum number of responses from the population to trigger a draft recommendation for parish arrangements to be made in the review area. This number would be 5% of the electors involved. A greater level of support would be expected for such a draft recommendation to be made a final recommendation.

If more than one option is supported at the draft or final recommendation stage then the support from the local electorate for those options will be measured against one another to determine whether the trigger point has been achieved.”

Those words were in the original draft approved by Council on 26 November and had remained in the revised set out at Appendix A to the Officer report.

The reference to minimum levels of support was not explicitly referenced in the 2007 Act or the statutory guidance mentioned in the Officer report.  However, they were included as a means of reassurance to the public that this whole exercise had not simply been predetermined and their say on the matter was important.

Members also heard that the legal framework which the proposals for the community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands had been prepared was set out in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. Tendring), had the power to determine such matters as whether to parish an area, to amend parish areas, to change electoral arrangements for parish councils and to remove moribund parishes following a process defined as a community governance review. 

In this case, a community governance review had been instigated by the relevant principal council (this Council).  In undertaking community governance reviews, principal councils are required, by section 100(4) of the 2007 Act, to have regard to this guidance which was issued by the Secretary of State, under section 100(1) and (3), and the LGBCE under section 100(2) of the same Act.  Due regard had been given to that guidance in the preparation of this report.  The full guidance was available through the link later in this report.

At Full Council on 26 November 2024 (Minute 75 refers), in addition to approving a community governance review for Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands, it was decided that this Committee would have the oversight role for community governance reviews undertaken by this Council.  Community Governance reviews were defined as non-executive functions within the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) Regulations 2000 (as amended).  Formal decisions around amending the Terms of Reference for the Review, approving final recommendations and any related Order were matters retained for Council.

The approved allocation of responsibilities in respect of community governance reviews between Council, this Committee and the Chief Executive were set out in Table No. 1 below:

These costs mentioned in the Officer report were determined in autumn 2024 and had been reassessed taking account of the revised costs of, mainly, mailing costs following increases in charges by Royal Mail on 7 April 2025 (of between 2.4-3.0%).  The combined outcome of adjustments to the costs associated with the community governance review was that the overall cost had increased by £5,000 from £48,000 to £53,000.  In addition, it was proposed that a sum of £10,000 be provided to facilitate the engagement with specialist bodies (such as the Society of Local Council Clerks) to support the review as needed.  Lastly, as there currently was no contingency in respect of this project, it was proposed to create a contingency figure of £5,000.  The contingency would hopefully enable any further increase in Royal Mail charges during the review to be absorbed.  As such, the total budget for the community governance (with the £5,000 contingency) would be £68,000 rather than the £48,000 originally approved. One of the recommendations sought to address that point. In this way, electors and stakeholders in the review area could receive information from the Council, access to independent views on the subject could be secured and any unforeseen costs could be met within a revised budget for the review.  Obviously, any unused funds could be reallocated by the Council at the end of the review.

It was moved by Councillor Steady, seconded by Councillor Doyle and unanimously:-

RESOLVED that the Committee:-

(a)  endorses the approach proposed to the community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands set out;

(b)  provide such comments on the revised Terms of Reference for the review as the Committee considers necessary ahead of their publication on 1 July 2025;

(c)   determine to meet on the following dates for the purposes of overseeing the community governance review:

Monday, 20 October 2025

Monday, 16 March 2026 (replacing the scheduled meeting on 10 March 2026); and

(d)  recommend to Cabinet that the funding for the community governance review be increased to £68,000 based on the revised costings, the inclusion of up to £10,000 of support through the Society of Local Council Clerks and provision of £5,000 contingency.