Mansfield District Council Electoral Review Stage One Council Size Submission This is the submission of District Council which was unanimously agreed at an Extraordinary Council held on 7 January 2021. Context of the submission The Council’s current warding arrangements came into force in May 2010, following a Single Member Electoral review which was requested by the Council. This established the current 36 single member wards. The current Administration was elected in May 2019. In addition to the 36 councillors the governance arrangements include an Elected Mayor, who is Leader of the Council. The Council’s Constitution which set out how the Council works, the roles of elected members and officers and sets out how decisions are made, was fundamentally reviewed in 2016 and has been amended since to reflect reviews on certain provisions contained within it and changes to legislation. The Council’s Senior Management structure was reviewed in late 2018 structure to provide a streamlined and focused structure, with a core strategic team at Director level working with the Chief Executive Officer, to provide the strategic leadership for the Council. This core is supported by six Heads of Service which provide capacity to deal with operational issues. No governance or capacity issues have been highlighted by external inspections. Local Authority Profile The district of Mansfield is situated in the north west of and has a geographical area of 7,672 hectares with a population of 109,300. The district comprises Mansfield, , and Forest Town. The district is surrounded by green space, ancient woodland and is part of the historic landscape of . As the largest Nottinghamshire town outside of , Mansfield brings together city living, many award winning outdoor spaces and quality housing. Mansfield has shown its resilience in the way it responded to the economic challenges of the past by diversifying, moving from market town and mining community to a base for manufacturing, offices and small to medium sized enterprises. It has encouraged investment in its infrastructure and has built new affordable and aspirational homes such as the Windmill Rise development, securing further investment in Mansfield. Mansfield residents on average have lower gross weekly pay than both the East and Great Britain and is ranked 46 out of 317 Local Authorities in on the Indices of Deprivation (where 1 is the most deprived). This puts Mansfield in the top 20% of the most deprived districts in the country, and is the most deprived out of Nottinghamshire Districts. Furthermore, one of Mansfield’s LSOA is ranked 36th most deprived out of 32,844 LSOA’s in England.

Governance Model The Council operates the Elected Mayor and Cabinet system of Executive Governance, this was introduced in October 2002, following a local referendum to change from the Leader and Cabinet system of executive governance. The Elected Mayor currently has four councillors appointed to this Cabinet, the most recent review of the Cabinet and Executive responsibilities was carried out by the Elected Mayor in November 2020. The Council’s Constitution provides for the Elected Mayor to appoint between two and nine councillors to the Cabinet, which reflects the legislative position as contained in the Local Government Act 2000. In reviewing options for council size, Council was aware of the ability of the Elected Mayor to appoint members to the Cabinet and that the number chosen would have an impact on the number of members available to undertake other functions and the capacity to do these duties. This was used as a starting point for reviewing options on alternative Council size. The number of members appointed by the Elected Mayor to the Cabinet has varied, being higher in some previous Administrations, which has reflected the work load and priorities of the Administration at that time. The Council’s principal overarching strategic documents are the Budget and Policy Framework documents which are drafted and consulted on with elected members in accordance with the provisions as set out in the Council’s Constitution. This provides non-executive members with the ability to comment on these draft strategies before they are approved by Full Council. These draft documents are prepared by the Executive member and then are scrutinised by non-executive members through the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Any recommendations from the scrutiny process are considered which may result in the draft document being amended, before it is recommended to Council by the appropriate Executive member. Where a strategy relates to an executive function as defined either in legislation or the Council’s Constitution it will be developed by the relevant Head of Service and submitted for approval to the relevant Executive Member. In these cases, non- executive members as well as member of the public have the ability to ask questions of the Executive member prior to the decision being taken. Council will ensure that these important opportunities for the involvement of executive members in the decision making are maintained. The majority of decisions taken by the elected members are made by the Executive as opposed to Council and these members are held accountable for their decisions, not only through the call-in process but also through the ability of elected members and members of the public to ask questions at Full Council. Portfolios Executive authority is vested with the elected Mayor and it is the elected mayor who determines who will make executive decisions and how they are made through the scheme of delegation.

The Elected Mayor currently has four councillors appointed to this Cabinet, the most recent review of the Cabinet and Executive responsibilities was carried out by the Elected Mayor in November 2020, which resulted in a reduction of Portfolio Holders by one. The Council’s Constitution provides for the Elected Mayor to appoint between two and nine councillors to the Cabinet, which reflects the legislative position as contained in the Local Government Act 2000. In reviewing options for council size the council was aware of the ability of the mayor to appoint members to the Cabinet which was totally within the gift of the mayor and would have an impact on the number of members available to undertake other functions. If a Mayor was to appoint nine members to their cabinet this would result in fewer non-executive members available to undertake non-executive functions and could result in political groups not being able take up their places available on Committees as a result of the commitments of their members. The number of members appointed by the Elected Mayor to the cabinet has varied, being higher in other Administrations, which has reflected the work load and priorities of the Administration at that time. The current Elected Mayor has authorised the Portfolio Holders to make individual executive decisions on matters that are in accordance with the Council’s approved corporate plan, priorities and budget. The majority of executive decision are taken by individual members but the Mayor has the ability to take a collective executive decision through the Cabinet.

As well as making decisions within the corporate strategy and within the budget, Portfolio Holders need to take into account the implications of their decisions on the Council’s policy and legal obligations in respect of, climate change and environmental sustainability, equality and diversity, Human Rights, Freedom of Information and crime and disorder.

The Elected Mayor at the Annual Meeting of the Council presents to the Council a report and notice on the composition, remit and delegations of the Executive appointments.

Delegated responsibility Full council which comprises the elected mayor and all councillors meets approximately six times a year to agree those matters that are reserved to Full council. Extraordinary meetings are held as and when required. The Council’s Constitution sets out those non – executive functions which are reserved to Council either by choice or a required by legislation. The Council at each Annual meeting appoints a number of Committees with responsibility for and to discharge the non-executive functions falling within their terms of reference, it is these Committees that undertake the majority of non-executive decision making. All councillors and the Elected Mayor approve those matters which are reserved to Council either by law or as agreed by the Council, including the budget and policy framework documents. The draft budget and policy framework documents will have also been scrutinised by the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee and could be amended in light of comments from these Committees, before they are considered and voted on at Council. The Annual Council currently appoints to the following Committees – Planning Applications Committee Licensing Committee Governance and Standards Committee Personnel Committee Health and Safety Committee Appeals Committee These Committees are still considered appropriate and an effective way of discharging the non-executive duties delegated by Council. Council does review the appropriateness and remits of its Committee as necessary. In 2019, the Audit Committee and Standards Committee was merged to form the Governance and Ethic Committee, now the Governance and Standards Committee. A schedule of meetings is produced annually with the largest annual work programme being undertaken by the Planning Applications Committee and the Governance and Standards Committee. Meetings of the Planning Applications Committee are held every four weeks to ensure that planning applications can be determined in line with Government targets, in particular that “major applications” can be determined within 13 weeks of being submitted. As mentioned elsewhere executive authority is vested with the Elected Mayor and it is the Elected Mayor who determines who will make executive decisions and how they are made through the scheme of delegation.

The Elected Mayor has delegated to officers full responsibility for and authority to take any executive decisions in respect of executive functions and services set out in Scheme of Delegation to Officers in Part 3 of Constitution. The Elected Mayor at the Annual Meeting of the Council presents to the Council a report and notice on the composition, remit and delegations of the Executive appointments.

Internal Scrutiny

The Council will continue to hold decision takers to account primarily through its Overview and Scrutiny Committees. Currently, there are three of these Committees comprising each of nine non-executive members and their remits are linked to the council’s service areas. The Council has operated three Committees since the introduction of overview and scrutiny, although the remits of the Committees have been reviewed. As part of the electoral review members did consider options to reduce the number of these committee to two whilst increasing the number of members who sit on them. Members agreed that in an authority with strong executive arrangements such as this authority, it was important to maintain the capacity of Overview and Scrutiny, so that future Administrations could effectively hold the Executive and decision makers to account. Reducing the number of members who were eligible to undertake this function would significantly increase the workload of those members appointed to this function. Whilst the call in provisions of the authority’s Overview and Scrutiny procedures are rarely used, Council did not want to affect the ability of future Councils to invoke such procedures. Reducing the capacity of non-executive members to effectively undertake this role it was felt could have a detrimental effect on the performance and reputation of the Council. A survey of members supported the retention of the current overview and scrutiny structure of three Committee and that reducing the number of councillors who could undertake this work would have a negative impact on the authority and increase the workload of those involved. A number of significant policy developments have been approved and implemented by the Council as a result of investigations and reviews undertaken by these Committees and Working Groups. The Council would not wish to reduce the opportunity for this work to be undertaken by non-executive members in future Councils, which would result from reducing the number of members available for this work. Furthermore, Overview and Scrutiny has also been used effectively by those Groups which were not represented on the Executive, as a means of enabling consideration and adoption of their policy ideas and manifestos. These Committees, particularly the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) have an important role, to ensure that Council’s ambitious Transformation programme and significant on-going budget savings are achieved. Each Committee will continue to have scheduled meetings every six weeks, with the proviso that additional meetings will be added to ensure that executive decisions which are called in can be dealt with in the timeframe as set out in the Council’s Constitution. Robust scrutiny of the Council’s draft budget has evolved over recent year and involves up to ten meetings in a six week period for the Committee tasked with scrutinising the executives draft proposals, and is a substantial time commitment for those members appointed to the Committee. Council will retain the ability to hold specific and time limited task and finish groups to undertake specific policy development by overview and scrutiny committees. Significant work has been undertaken by this groups in the past and therefore to ensure that this activity can continue, non-executive capacity needs to be maintained. Overview and Scrutiny Committees will continue to have the ability to develop and agree an annual work programme, in accordance with the service needs of their remits and to meet corporate objectives. All Council meetings including Overview and Scrutiny Committee and their working groups are held in the evening to encourage community participation and to enable members to attend meetings whilst balancing both their personal and professional lives. In addition to the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, decision makers are also held to account by both elected members and members of the public through questions, which are able to be put at meetings of Full Council, the Cabinet, individual Executive decisions and at Overview and Scrutiny Committees. Statutory functions The percentage of planning applications that are determined by officers in consultation with the Chair of the Planning Applications Committee is high, at approximately 95% and it is not anticipated that this level of delegation will change as the arrangements work well. The single council wide planning committee works well, enabling members to have a district wide perspective on major planning applications that are to be determined by the Committee. Also a single committee is considered appropriate due to the relatively low number of applications that are determined by it. Members of the Executive can sit on the Planning Applications Committee however, this has been kept to a minimum due to the time commitments of being a member of the Executive. The number of Licensing Panels held annually by the authority varies, in 2016, there were 19 Panels, 2017 (4), 2018 (9), 2019 (5) and there were no panels in 2020. The Chair of the Licensing Committee chairs the Panel, or in their absence the Vice-Chair, and a panel of three is formed using two other members of the Licensing Committee on a rotating basis. The time commitment for each Panel is approximately five hours with regard to reading the report and attendance of the Panel. The Licensing Committee itself meets quarterly which is sufficient to agree licensing policies for either officers or Panels to implement in accordance with Council approved delegations. External partnerships The Council is involved with a wide range of external outside bodies. Members are either appointed to these bodies by the Elected Mayor, if the body undertake executive functions or by the Council, if the function is non-executive. Of the executive appointments, the Mayor takes up 16 of these appointments with the rest being undertaken other members of the Executive. Appointments to those bodies undertaking non-executive functions are made by Council and usually go to the largest Group on the Council. The appropriateness of these outside bodies was last reviewed by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee prior to the May 2019 Mayoral and District Council elections, in terms of the value they brought to the Council and District. Since this review of number of additional outside bodies have been established which involve members of the executive including the Mayor that include the Council working with a number of strategic partners. In 2019, the Council approved the strategy Making Mansfield: Towards 2030 and is the overarching strategy for the district. It sets the overall strategic direction, the ambitions and priorities the Council and its partners will focus on and provide the framework for delivery. It recognises that the Council must work with its partners from a variety of sector to influence and shape the district.

Progress and performance of the overarching strategy is reviewed periodically and reported to a Place Board which has been established and comprises the principal strategic partners of the Council. Within the Council, this strategy will continue to be monitored through the Overview and Scrutiny structure. The themes have also been established for the strategy which will be progressed through delivery groups working on the specific actions. The Place Board also receive timely updates with the delivery teams being responsible for detailed performance and management. The Constitution also enables the Council and Elected Mayor to establish joint arrangements with other local authorities and/or their executives to discharge functions. The Mansfield and District Crematorium Joint Committee is responsible for the management of the local crematorium with both Council and District Council. The Council has also entered into arrangements to deliver a number of shared services with neighbouring authorities. Community Leadership The Council is currently composed entirely of single member wards. The Council believes that this approach has brought benefits to the Council and the constituents and communities which Councillors represent. All of the respondents of an elected member survey undertaken as part of this review supported the retention of single member wards. Members cited increased accountability and transparency with the electorate, who had a single point of contact for dealing with issues within the ward or with the Council. They were also deemed to less confusing for members of the public as elected members were easily identifiable. At a ward level there was less political input and duplication of efforts, preventing the same matter being investigated by more than one councillor.

36% of current members had been members of the authority prior to the establishment of single member wards in 2010. All of these members were of the opinion that from a community perspective, single member wards were preferable to multi member wards, as they removed the element of confusion for residents who they should contact and increase accountability to the electorate. Council is of the view that single member should be retained as they better serve the electorate, this approach was agreed by Council at an Extraordinary Council held on 7 January 2021. Several members either singularly or collectively with surrounding ward members established effective community networks to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. These networks not only directed members of to the formal support offer to vulnerable residents through the Nottinghamshire County Council’s Covid response but also covered such activities as shopping, dog walking and befriending. The survey of members found that 74% of respondents engaged with their electorate via social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. The Council has provided social media training and guidance to members on the use and pitfalls of its use at members’ request. In addition, the Council has assisted members to produce newsletters, which are distributed to each property within the ward and as part of the Council’s transformation programme members will be assisted to undertake these newsletters electronically. Prior, to the pandemic these newsletters were distributed to each property in a ward by the elected member in paper form. In addition, to the use of more traditional methods of engaging with residents a number of elected members still hold traditional ward surgeries or undertake frequent ward walks. Council acknowledge that the use of technology such as digital newsletters, social media and virtual meetings had made councillors more contactable, there was still a need for the more traditional methods of engaging with constituents, as not all had access to or were comfortable using IT. Whilst it is acknowledged that use of more traditional methods of communicating with residents was more time and resource consuming, it was a suitable means of engagement for dealing with specific sectors of the community. The Council does not operate area Committees, however, provision is made within the Council’s Constitution for the Elected Mayor to delegate responsibility for executive functions to an area committee as defined by Section 18, Local Government Act 2000. There is only one Parish Council in the district, which covers the current four district Council wards of Warsop. Casework Councillors have traditionally reported and worked closely with service officers to resolve issues that arise within their ward. However, members did report that as a result of the reduction in the number of officers at the Council’s, particularly since 2010, there was less support available to Councillors, to deal with constituency matters. Members also reported that officers took longer to respond to requests for assistance which was also attributed to the reduction in numbers. Members noted that the forecast increase in electorate and not just to 2027 but beyond would further increase the constituency demands on them at a time when there would be further cuts in the officer establishment, to ensure that the Council could balance its budget.

The district comprises both deprived and affluent areas which impacts on the level and complexity of the matters raised with members. The least deprived ward is the Berry Hill ward and the most deprived is the Oak Tree ward. The district is ranked 46 out of 317 Lower Tier Local Authorities (Local Authority District) in England (using an average score measure) which places it in the top 20% of most deprived districts in the country. Of the 317 districts in England, each district is ranked using an average score measure. (1 being the most deprived and 317 the least deprived). Mansfield is the most deprived of the Nottinghamshire districts using the average score measure. (46 out of 317 districts). The most deprived LSOA lies within . It is ranked the 36th most deprived out of the 32,844 LSOAs in England. The district has the lowest household income when compared to all the other districts in Nottinghamshire.

A survey of members undertaken in December 2020, indicated that 68% considered their ward to be deprived and that this influenced the amount of casework that they had to deal with. The survey also revealed that whether a ward was deprived or not, but particularly in deprived ward, the ward councillor was the first point of contact for dealing with matters. The survey also indicated that members provided support to a variety of individuals not just a core group. The survey also indicated that issues were not just referred directly to officers to deal with but that members were proactive in dealing with issues in a variety of ways, including liaising with other organisations such as the County Council, the Police and other agencies. The majority of members undertook between 5 to 10 hours each week of interacting with constituents via email, telephone and ward surgeries, whilst 30% spent between 10 and 35 hours per week on these activities. Members reported an increase in contact being made by members of the public and businesses generated by the on-going public health situation, but also that the scope and nature of the issues had increased. It was anticipated that this increased caseload would continue with the after effects of the pandemic. Members were provided with forecast electorate figures for 2027 and noted the forecast electoral increase which anticipated a growth in electors to up 2027 of approximately the equivalent of two wards. Council agreed that any reduction in the number of Councillors from the current 36, would adversely affect the ability of members in the future to represent the ward effectively and if a reduction was combined with the forecast electoral increase, it would be have the greatest impact on deprived areas of the district. In September 2019 the Council approved its Local Plan for the period up to 2033. The Plan sets out a local housing need for 5,580 homes over the plan period (an average of 279 homes per year). However, due to the growth aspirations of the council and the government a housing target for the plan was agreed at 6,500 homes a year. This will be distributed as follows: (i) Mansfield urban area - 90% or at least 5850 new homes; (ii) Warsop Parish - 10% or at least 650 new homes. As a result the Extraordinary Council on 7 January 2021, unanimously agreed that the future warding arrangement of the Council should comprise of no less than 36 single member wards. Council at this meeting recognised the impact that this expected growth would have on the Council and communities beyond 2027 and requested that the Commission fully consider this when making their recommendation on council size. Summary This submission of Mansfield District Council is based on the findings and recommendations of the Polling Places Review Committee, on the future Executive, Scrutiny and Community Leadership requirements of the authority. It is also based on the projected growth of the electorate up to 2027 and beyond as a result of anticipated housing development in the district. Having considered this information Council at an Extraordinary meeting on 7 January 2021, unanimously approved that the future Council from 2023 comprised of no less than 36 single member wards and that the Commission fully consider the future expected growth over the next 10-12 years when making their recommendation on Council size.