Community Governance Review Wolverley And Cookley Terms Of Reference, May 2024

INTRODUCTION

Why undertake a community governance review?

1. The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (LGPIH) devolved the power to take decisions relating to the creation or abolition of parishes, the boundaries of parishes and the electoral arrangements of parish councils from the Secretary of State and the Electoral Commission to principal councils. From 2008, district councils have had responsibility for undertaking community governance reviews and have been able to decide whether to give effect to the recommendations made in those reviews. In making that decision, Councillors need to take into account the views of local people and to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

2. Wyre Forest District Council has resolved to undertake a Community Governance Review (CGR), pursuant to Part 4, Chapter 3 of LGPIH, with a view to asking the public in Wolverley and Cookley whether they support the creation of separate parish councils for Wolverley, for Cookley and for Lea Castle.

3. A CGR provides an opportunity for principal authorities to review and make changes to community governance within their area.

4. A CGR is a review of the whole or part of the district to consider one or more of the following:

• Creating, merging, altering or abolishing parishes
• The naming of parishes and the style of new parishes
• The electoral arrangements for parishes ( the ordinary year of election: council size, the number of councillors to be elected to council, and parish warding) and
• Grouping parishes under a common parish council or de-grouping parishes.
  
  

5. The Government has emphasised that, ultimately, recommendations made in a CGR ought to improve community engagement, result in more cohesive communities, yield better local democracy and result in more effective and convenient delivery of local services.

6. Parish councils are a democratically elected tier of local government with their own Councillors, which provide a range of local services for a locally defined area. Councillors would be elected by local residents.

Scope of the review

7. The District Council has resolved to undertake a CGR to consider whether governance arrangements within Wolverley and Cookley are:

1. Reflective of the identities and interests of the community in that area:
2. Effective and convenient to the community in that area

In doing so, the review is required to take into account:

1. The impact of community governance arrangements on community cohesion, and
2. The size, population and boundaries of any new parish.

8. The area that is the subject of the review consists of the local government parish of Wolverley and Cookley: see attached map. The parish is part of the Wyre Forest Rural ward of Wyre Forest District Council and, for the purposes of elections, the parish is divided into three polling districts.

Who will undertake the community governance review?

9. As the principal authority, the District Council is responsible for undertaking any CGR within its electoral area.

10. Draft recommendations will be made to Full Council for consideration and, depending on the outcome of the consultation, this would include making of a reorganisation order.

CONSULTATION

11. Before making any recommendations or publishing final proposals, in line with legislative requirements, the District Council will take full account of the views of local people. The District Council will comply with legislative requirements by:

• Consulting all local government electors for the area under review. Each elector will be asked formally whether or not they support the creation of a parish council for the area in which they live. This will be achieved through a local advisory poll under section 16 of the Local Government Act 2003 and will be held on 1 May 2025. In addition, electors are welcome to submit written responses to the proposals if they wish;
• Consulting any other person or body (including Worcestershire County Council and other local authorities) which appears to the principal council to have an interest in the review;
• Taking into account any representations received in connection with the review.

12. When taking account of representations, the District Council is bound to have regard to the need to secure that community governance within the area under review:

• Reflects the identities and interests of the community in that area, and
• Is effective and convenient

13. In order to ensure that this review is conducted transparently, as soon as practicable, the District Council will publish its recommendations and take such steps as it considers sufficient to ensure that persons who may be interested in the review are informed of the recommendations and the reasons behind them.

14. The District Council will also notify the outcome of the review to any persons or bodies who submit written representations.

Timetable for the review

15. A CGR must, by statute, be concluded within a twelve month period from the day on with the review commences. A CGR commences when the Council publishes its Terms of Reference and it concludes when the District Council publishes the recommendations made in the review.

PRINCIPLES GUIDING THE REVIEW

Relevant legislation

16. In undertaking a CGR, the District Council will apply the guiding principles as appropriate from the following legislation and guidance:

• The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007
• The Local Government Act 1972
• Guidance on Community Governance Reviews (DCLG/EC)
• Local Government (Parishes and Parish Councils)(England) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/625)

Electorate

17. In considering the electoral arrangements of the parish stated within these Terms of Reference, the District Council is required to consider any change in the number or distribution of the electors which is likely to occur in the period of five years beginning with the day when the review starts.

18. The parish of Wolverley and Cookley has 4,235 electors (April 2024). The 2029 estimates of electors, used by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, show that the Cookley ward would grow by almost 1,700 electors, which will relate mainly or wholly to the development at Lea Castle. In total, 1,400 dwellings are expected at Lea Castle in accordance with the adopted local plan, of which 600 already have permission with an application for the remaining 800 expected to be considered later in 2024. Once all 1,400 dwellings are built, there is every expectation that the number of electors in Lea Castle will comfortably exceed the 2,000 or so in each of the present Wolverley and Cookley wards.

Present Structures of parish governance in the area to be reviewed:

Parish Council & ward Councillors No. of Electors/Councillor

Wolverley & Cookley, Wolverley 7 292

Wolverley & Cookley, Cookley 7 313

(The Cookley ward comprises the polling districts CO1 and CO2.)

Justification and General Considerations for the Review

19. As the principal Council, Wyre Forest District Council has a legal duty to carry out a Community Governance Review of Wolverley and Cookley Parish following the receipt of an application by the Parish Council. The application “formally request[ed] that Wyre Forest District Council undertake a Community Governance Review in respect of the current Parish Council, given the housing growth at Lea Castle”. The request did not seek any particular outcome or propose what the electoral arrangements would be, either for the existing parish council or for new parish councils if they were to be created by the review.

20. The Council wishes to ensure that electors should be able to identify clearly with the parish in which they are resident. It considers that this sense of identity and community lends strength and legitimacy to the parish structure, creates a common interest in parish affairs, encourages participation in elections to the parish council, leads to representative and accountable government, engenders visionary leadership and generates a strong, inclusive community with a sense of civic values, responsibility and pride. The Council considers that parishes should reflect distinctive and recognisable communities of interest, with their own sense of identity; the feeling of local community and the wishes of local inhabitants are therefore primary considerations in this Review.

21. The Council is anxious to balance carefully the considerations of changes that have happened over time, through population shifts or additional development for example, and that have led to a different community identity with historic traditions in its area. The Council notes the Government's Guidance that community cohesion should be taken into account in this Review.

22. If the review leads to the replacement of the current parish council by two or three new parish councils, it is appropriate that a suitable transitional period is allowed for the new councils to prepare for assumption of their responsibilities. This will include practical matters such as adopting standing orders and financial regulations, deciding any committee structures, making arrangements for clerking or other staffing matters and – very importantly – deciding the budget and council tax precept for their first year of operation. Under the timetable set out above, it is therefore proposed that, if created, new councils would exist from September 2026 with the first ordinary elections to the new councils being held in May 2027. During the period from September 2026 to the first elections, the members of a new council would be the relevant ward members of Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council: for example, the members of a new Cookley parish council would be the serving councillors for the Cookley ward.

23. If new parish councils were created, there would be no change to the membership or responsibilities of Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council until it ceased to exist on 31 March 2027. It would not have to set a budget or issue a precept for 2027-28 as the new councils would take those decisions for themselves.

24. If new parish councils were created, it would be necessary for the District Council to make a reorganisation order to give effect to the new arrangements. This would also include making provision for the transfer of land and assets from Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council to the appropriate new council. Provision would have to be made for the transfer of the following land and buildings:

Memorial Hall, Wolverley

Cookley Village Hall and Social Club

Elizabeth Bache Garden, Cookley

Cookley allotments, Lionfields Road, Cookley

Among other assets will be the unused financial reserves of Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council at 31 March 2027 and they would need to be shared on an appropriate and fair basis, having regard to the fact that all areas of the present parish have contributed to them over a period of time. The proposed approach on transfer of land and assets in a reorganisation order would be the subject of separate consultation during the latter part of 2025, if the review results in the creation of new parish councils. The reorganisation order would also need to address the electoral arrangements for new parish councils: views on this aspect are sought below.

25. If the review results in the retention of Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council on its current boundaries, a reorganisation order would still be required if changes are to be made to the electoral arrangements that will be implemented following the review of Worcestershire County Council by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The Boundary Commission’s final recommendations are <insert table after final recommendations published>. The District Council believes that <drafting TBC after confirmation of LGBCE final recommendations> and views are therefore sought below on potential changes to the electoral arrangements.

Potential approaches that would be adopted depending on outcome of the Review

26. In Wyre Forest, there are separate parish councils for many smaller communities than each of the three principal communities in Wolverley and Cookley. The table shows the most recent electorate and the number of councillors in each case:

28. If the review results in the creation of a separate parish council for each of the three communities in Wolverley and Cookley, the District Council would propose that the number of councillors for that parish council should be as set out in the table, and there would be no wards within each parish. Thus the level of representation would be the same across a parish. The number of councillors proposed for Lea Castle Parish Council, if created, is higher than the two other areas in recognition of the expectation that it will ultimately have more electors than each of those other areas. This is also reflected in the alternative proposals set out below in the event of other outcomes to the review.

29.Other outcomes of the review are possible, including retention of Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council on its present footprint. This table considers the electoral arrangements that the District Council would propose in those other circumstances, reflecting that the 1,400 dwellings proposed for the Lea Castle site, once occupied, would be likely to have well over 2,000 electors and therefore deserve a higher level of representation than the other principal communities:

30. The District Council recognises that the total number of councillors in the last scenario would result in a large parish council: 22 councillors compared to the 18 that form Kidderminster Town Council or the 18 that form Stourport-on-Severn Town Council. Alternative arrangements are possible for each of these scenarios, although any proposals put forward for the District Council’s consideration should reflect the expectation that Lea Castle will have more electors in time than Cookley or Wolverley and seek to achieve a broad level of equality of representation between the different areas.

31. Views are therefore invited on the proposed electoral arrangements and the names to be allocated to parishes and their councils. In the event that Wolverley & Cookley Parish Council is retained on its present footprint, views are invited on whether the parish and its council should be renamed as Wolverley, Cookley & Lea Castle to reflect the existence of what will be the largest community in the parish.

32. If, following consultation and the local advisory poll, the District Council decides to implement changes to create any new parish councils, it is proposed that the changes would take effect on 1 September 2026. As explained above, the parish councillors for the relevant polling district would serve on the new council(s) for the period until the first ordinary elections in May 2027. The new councils would decide their budgets and level of council tax for 2027-28 and subsequent years. It is not possible to predict what their decisions will be.

Reorganisation of Community Governance Orders and Commencement

33. If changes are agreed, a reorganisation order would then be required and would be the subject of separate consultation. This would be implemented in accordance with Government guidance. More detail on what would be contained in a reorganisation order is set out for information earlier in this consultation paper.

34. The review will be completed when the Council adopts a ‘Reorganisation of Community Governance Order’. Copies of this Order, the map(s) that show the effects of the order in detail, and the document(s) which set out the reasons for the decisions that the Council has taken (including where it has decided to make no change following a review) will be deposited at the Council’s Offices and on the Council’s website.

35. In accordance with the guidance issued by the Government, the Council will deposit and make available for public inspection maps to illustrate each recommendation as soon as possible after making the order. The Council will inform the Secretary of State, the Electoral Commission, the Office of National Statistics and the Director General of the Ordnance Survey.

Consultation – How to take part and how to contact us

36. Every local government elector in Wolverley and Cookley will be able to take part in the local advisory poll which will be held on 1 May 2025. They will be able to vote in the same way as they have registered to do for the local government elections on that day i.e. they will be able to vote in person at a polling station unless they have registered for a postal or proxy vote for the local government elections.

37. If you have additional written comments that you would like to submit about how you view potential future arrangements under these Terms of Reference, please send them to arrive no later than 30 November 2024 by email to:

wandcgovernancereview@wyreforestdc.gov.uk

or by post to:

C S Newlands
Solicitor to the Council
Wyre Forest District Council,
Wyre Forest House
Finepoint Way,
Kidderminster,
DY11 7WF

Publication of Terms of Reference

38. These Terms of Reference will be published on the District Council’s web site: www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk and will be available for public inspection at The Hub, Green Street, Kidderminster DY10 1HA.

Map showing current polling districts, April 2024

The polling districts WFR-CO1 and WFR-C02 make up the Cookley ward of Wolverley & Cookley Parish Council, for which elections were held in May 2023.