4. The Isle Of Wight Council has an existing policy of supporting the creation of Parish Councils, where there is a demand from the electorate. The extension or creation of Parish Councils will fit comfortably with one of the aspirations of the Isle of Wight Community Strategy 2002-2012, viz: “To help local communities become more involved in making local decisions.”

CONSULTATION

5. Due to tight timescales imposed by the Local Government and Rating Act 1997, a period of public consultation was commenced immediately upon receipt of the petition. The details of this consultation are attached in Appendix A.

FINANCIAL/BUDGET IMPLICATIONS

6. Some expenditure has already been incurred with the consultation process, all of which has been met from within existing budgets.

7. The costs of running the Parish Council will be met from any precept levied. The costs of running elections can be controlled by ensuring that boundaries are, where appropriate, coterminous with Electoral Divisions to avoid small and fragmented Polling Districts. Little additional expenditure would be anticipated, as changes to Polling Districts can be effected easily via our existing computer systems.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

8. The petition has been submitted under the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 and as detailed above the Isle of Wight Council has to, within three months, pass the petition and plan, as they are, to the Secretary of State with any comments that we may make.

9. It will be for the Secretary of State (in this case the Deputy Prime Minister) to determine if a Parish Council is created as a consequence of the petition. The Council can only express views on the proposal.

OPTIONS

10. The Isle of Wight Council can make recommendations to the Secretary Of State on a number of options:

· The Council may conclude that it does not wish to make any recommendations or comments on the petition;

· Conclude that it supports the creation of the Parish Council;

· Conclude that the recommendations regarding the realignment of certain boundaries, as detailed in Appendix B be approved, for onward transmission to the Secretary Of State;

· Make recommendations on the number of Councillors who should serve on the Parish Council, and whether or not the Parish Council should be divided into wards.

EVALUATION/RISK MANAGEMENT

11. The map submitted with the Petition bisected a number of existing Isle Of Wight Council Electoral Divisions. In the case of the Ashey Electoral Division, a simple realignment of the boundaries between the two existing Polling Districts will address the issue.

12. In the case of the Fairlee Electoral Division, the area in question is suitably large enough to have a new Polling District created, and there may be scope for using a building in the area as a Polling Station.

13. However, in the cases of the Wootton and Binstead Electoral Divisions, the areas in question are relatively small, and lightly populated. In these instances it would be undesirable to create small Polling Districts, which would be required if the boundaries of the proposed Parish Council and the existing Electoral Divisions were not coterminous.

14. A number of variations on the Petition Map were submitted to the Public Meeting that would go some way to addressing these issues, but the view of the Public Meeting was overwhelmingly in favour of adopting the Petition Map, as presented. These options are outlined in Appendix B.

15. In order to address the issues raised by the desirability of ensuring coterminous boundaries, whilst implementing the wishes of those who signed the Petition and attended the Public Meeting, it would be logical to support the option of recommending that the boundaries of the Wootton and Binstead Electoral Division be realigned to match those of the Petition, as submitted.

16. If this course of action is taken, it would also be necessary to recommend that the boundary of Wootton Bridge Parish Council be amended to reflect that of the amended Wootton Electoral Division.

17. The Isle of Wight Council is also being asked to make recommendations on the number of Councilors who should serve on the Parish Council, along with the possible warding of the Council.

18. Number of members: At the Public Meeting, those present were overwhelmingly in favour of having seven members serving on the Parish Council. The population of the proposed Parish Council area will be roughly 550, and this puts it on a par with both Chale and Shorwell who have six members each. Larger, more urban, Town and Parish councils tend to have a lower ratio of members to electors. Seven members would give the Parish Council one of the highest ratios of members to electors on the Isle of Wight, and to rectify this a figure of six councilors is recommended.

19. Warding: Wards are used to ensure that separate communities within the Parish Council area are adequately represented. There is only one main body of population within the proposed Parish Council area, that being the village of Havenstreet. The rest of the population is distributed over a diverse area, with no other population concentrations.

20. It was the unanimous view of the Public Meeting that the area should not be divided into Wards, and that the population do indeed see themselves as one cohesive whole. It is therefore recommended that the area is not divided into Parish Council Wards.

21. These options accord with the Councils policy of creating Parish Councils “where there is a demand.”

22. Risks are minimal with this process. Officers must ensure that any recommendation for emparishment is put forward to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in accordance with the provisions contained within the Local Government and Rating Act 1997.

RECOMMENDATIONS

23. Given the feedback obtained from the Public Meeting, it is recommended that:

(a) That the Isle of Wight Council support the petition for the establishment of the “Havenstreet and Ashey” Parish Council.

(b) That boundaries of the Parish Council be as defined by the map presented with the Petition (and as set out in Appendix A).

(c) That the boundaries of the existing Isle Of Wight Council Electoral Divisions of Ashey and Wootton, and the existing boundary of Wootton Bridge Parish Council be amended, so that they become coterminous with those of the proposed “Havenstreet and Ashey” Parish Council.

(d) That the Parish Council should consist of six members.

(e) That the Parish Council area should not be divided into Wards.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

24. Appendix B – Consultation and Feedback

Contact Point : Clive Joynes, Electoral Services Officer (01983) 823341

M J A FISHER

Chief Executive Officer

Appendix A

Appendix B

Petition for the creation of “Havenstreet and Ashey” Parish Council

Summary of Consultation

1. Consultation:

1.1 An Official Notice was placed in the Isle Of Wight County Press, and copies of the notice were placed around the Havenstreet area. The notice give the locations of where a map of the proposed boundary could be viewed, and requested that any comments on the boundary itself or the subsequent electoral arrangements be submitted to the Council by Friday 27^th February 2004.

1.2 All of the existing Parish Councils which adjoined the proposed Parish Council were invited to comment, as were members of the Isle of Wight Council whose Electoral Divisions were covered by the proposals.

1.3 A public meeting was held in the Havenstreet Community Centre on the evening of Friday 20^th February; this meeting had been publicised in the Official Notices, and by flyers which were hand delivered by the petition organisers to every property within the proposed Parish Council boundary, along with a mention in the Village Talk section of the Isle of Wight County Press.

2 The Public Meeting:

2.1 The Public Meeting was held at 7:00pm in the Havenstreet Community Centre on Friday 20^th February 2004. A large-scale map of the area contained within the map submitted with the petition was on display, along with three other maps which showed various alternative propositions given that the boundaries on the petition map did not, in a number of instances, follow existing Polling District boundaries.

2.2 The three map variations on display comprised:

· Map A enclosed only that part of the petition area that fell within the boundaries of the existing Electoral Division of Ashey.

· Map B included all of the area in Map A, plus that part of the Fairlee Electoral Division that had been included on the petition map.

· Map C included all of the area in Map B, along with that part of the Wootton Electoral Division that had been included on the petition map.

2.3 It was pointed out that this last option (Map C), along with the original petition map, would be most time consuming to implement, as the land in the Wooton Electoral Division was also part of Wootton Bridge Parish Council, and therefore the transfer of the area from one Parish to another would have to be approved by the Secretary of State. At the same time the transfer of the land to the Ashey Electoral Division would seem to be appropriate, which would also require similar consent. Obtaining such consent would also increase the amount of time before the Order to create the Parish could be made, as the Secretary Of State would need to refer the matter to the Boundary Committee of the Electoral Commission.

2.4 It was further pointed out that the adoption of either the original petition map, or of Map C would have the effect of creating one or two (depending upon the map adopted) very small (in population terms) Polling Districts, which would be required to ensure that only those electors who were within the proposed Parish area, but outside of the Ashey and Havenstreet Polling Districts were able to vote in the Parish Council elections. In one case a Polling District would have to be created for just one property. This situation could be resolved by the realignment of those parts of the boundaries of the Wootton and Ashey Electoral Divisions to match the proposed Parish Boundaries, along with the realignment of the boundary of the Wootton Bridge Parish Council. Where necessary, a new Polling District would be created in the East of the Fairlee Electoral Division, and the demarcation between the Haylands and Havenstreet Polling Districts would be redrawn to follow the external boundary of the Parish Council at that point.

3 Feedback from the Public Meeting:

3.1 Around 30 people attended the public meeting, not all of whom took part in any show of hands, as they did not necessarily live within the area in question.

3.2 The meeting provided a good deal of positive feedback for the creation of the Parish Council. Of those present, only one person raised any degree of objection to the proposals, mainly focused around the extra precept that would have to be levied, and the nature of any services provided in return.

3.3 After a discussion on the establishment of a Parish Council, a show of hands was taken on the question of whether those present were in favour of the creation of such a body, regardless of boundaries. Of those who voted, twenty were in favour, none against, and two undecided.

3.4 Having discussed the various merits of the maps on display, and after a discussion as to the possible implementation timetables a show of hands was taken on the various options. Nineteen people voted for the petition map as submitted, with none in favour of any other option.

3.5 Finally the possible electoral arrangements for the Parish Council were discussed. The majority of those present favoured seven councillors, whilst it was unanimously agreed that the area should not be divided into wards.

4 Results of the Consultation Process:

4.1 In addition to the public meeting the other comments received are set out below.

4.2 Only one letter was received from a member of the public, and whilst in favour of the creation of the Parish Council, the respondent suggested that a parcel of land bordering Whiterails Road in Wootton, as far West as Palmers Brook, and as far South as Blacklands Lane (which is currently unparished) could be included in the Wootton Bridge Parish Council area, along with a corresponding parcel of land on the East of Briddlesford Road by the side of the steam railway that had been included in the “Havenstreet and Ashey” petition.

4.3 A broadly similar letter was received from Wootton Bridge Parish Council, which contained a similar proposal, but which extended the proposed area to be included in Wootton Bridge Parish Council to the point where Whiterails Road meets Blacklands Lane, at the Eastern end of Staplers Road. Wootton Bridge Parish Council made no objection to part of their Parish becoming part of “Havenstreet and Ashey” Parish Council.

4.4 The clerk to Newchurch Parish Council (which borders, but is not affected by the proposed Parish Council area) wrote to confirm that his Council had considered the matter at its last meeting, and that the Parish Council welcomed the petition for the creation of a “Havenstreet and Ashey” Parish Council.

4.5 A similar letter was received from the clerk to Brading Town Council, which again borders the proposed Parish Council area.

Contact Point: Clive Joynes, Electoral Services Officer. Tel 823341

[email protected]

Title : ESTABLISHMENT OF A PARISH COUNCIL FOR HAVENSTREET AND ASHEY

SUMMARY/PURPOSE

CONFIDENTIAL/EXEMPT ITEMS

BACKGROUND

STRATEGIC CONTEXT