Agenda item

This matter is the responsibility of Somerset West and Taunton Council.

This report is to provide the Charter Trustees for Taunton with an update on the proposed forthcoming review and to share the draft report being taken to SWT Full Council.

The Mayor advised that the Governance Manager of SWT was in attendance to speak to this item and explain the next steps.

The Governance Manager explained that a report was to be taken to SWT Full Council on the 30^th March 2021 requesting a cross party working group is set up to look at the Community Governance Review for the Unparished Area of Taunton. The recommendations reinforced that the former Taunton Deane Borough Council had resolved to undertake this, with a view to a new entity being set up by May 2023, and would tie into Unitarisation plans for 1^st April 2023. Whilst Charter Trustees would be kept informed via regular progress reports, the responsibility for the review still sat with Somerset West and Taunton Council. A timetable was attached to the report as an Annex.

During the discussion of this item, members made comments and asked questions which included:-

·       In regards to the Working Group, it was queried as to whether the significant number of Taunton based Councillors who had an interest in this matter would be ensured a place?

·       The decision was for SWT Full Council, but if Council was minded to agree the Group Leaders would come forward with the names of the appropriate Councillors on said Group. Members of the Executive could serve on the Working Group. Individual Councillors could respond to the consultation as well as the Charter Trustees as a body, and other Parish Councils on the boundary.

·       Concern was raised that there was sufficient staff resource to carry out this exercise?

·       The Governance team had a high workload and this project would be prioritised, a business case for extra resource would be taken to the Senior Management Team but this was not required at this moment in time. Other teams would be involved such as Communications and Elections.

·       A suggestion was made that a pre-agreement for extra resource was put in place before starting this work.

·       What would be the position of the Charter Trustees if there were multiple parishes wished to be set up being the ultimate outcome of this exercise?

·       The Charter Trustees and Taunton Mayoralty would remain in existence until any future arrangements were stood up, the Working Group would look at the options and their impact on the Taunton Mayoralty.

·       It was raised as to why the option for a Town Council had not been identified as the proposed option already, as other localities of a similar size had this form of Governance and could SWT promote this as the preferred choice?

·       No option was off the table at the moment, but once the Working Group was set up and the preferred option was a Town Council that it is narrowed down when the Terms of Reference is considered, but it is inappropriate to do so at this stage.

·       There was a need for the Charter Trustees to have on their Agenda regularly to have a discussion and collectively feedback viewpoints to the Working Group.

·       The Working Group would be expected to meet with the Charter Trustees to understand their views.

·       It was requested that the recommendation was amended to reflect that a Town Council as well as a Parish Council was a potential option.

·       This would be taken on board and happy to be made more explicit.

·       It was urged that this process was kept as simple as possible.

·       It was queried whether the Charter Trustees would continue if the area remained Unparished under a unitary position?

·       This would need to be investigated and legal advice sought.

·       Concern was raised as to how the Working Group would balance the strength and number of responses received from various parties to ensure justice and a fair result was given to the residents of the Unparished area?

·       A communications plan would outline how there would be an equality of opportunity to comment on the plans.

·       It was suggested that just looking at the Unparished area may be a simpler exercise now and then in a few years’ time the question of including other Parishes nearby was looked at again rather than now.

·       A query was raised as to whether the unitary campaigns were still suggesting that a Minister would be able to just take a decision to parish the Taunton area and thus make the Review redundant.

·       At the Somerset Monitoring Officers Group meetings, this review was discussed and Somerset County Council were keen for this to get underway and deliver the new arrangements by 1^st April 2023. It would be a surprise for this process to be interrupted once underway and the Charter Trustees would expect to be consulted as the representatives of the Unparished Area of Taunton.

·       A query was raised as to the typical powers of a Parish/Town Council and what powers the new body would have?

·       The legal duties of a Town/Parish Council are clearly laid out in statute. As part of the scoping during the process, conversations with Officers would be expected to take place around Assets etc. in readiness for the Shadow arrangements.

·       It was commented that it would be a Shadow Unitary Authority that would be negotiating with the Shadow Parish or Town Council grouping.

RESOLVED that a letter be written on behalf of the Charter Trustees for Taunton to the SWT Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder to urge him to ensure that the Community Governance Review is considered SWT Council’s highest corporate priority in the forthcoming year, in relation to governance matters under his portfolio. The letter was to also urge that resources are in place to complete this task, with a contingency built in now, so that if unexpected matters do arise in year this project does not get waylaid. The letter would highlight that with an impending decision on unitary status expected soon, it is considered fundamentally essential that this project is progressed at this time, so that the residents of Taunton do not continue to suffer any democratic deficit by the time any new unitary authority is stood up. Copies of the letter would be sent to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Minister of State for Regional Growth and Local Government, as well as the One Somerset and Stronger Somerset campaigns to ensure they are aware of the forthcoming Community Governance Review for the Unparished Area of Taunton.