Harborough Council Size Submission Approved by Full Council on 25th July 2016 Section 1 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Harborough District spans an area of 59,178 hectares (228 square miles) situated in rural south Leicestershire. The district shares boundaries with Melton Borough, Rutland County, Corby Borough, Kettering Borough, Daventry District, Rugby Borough, Blaby District, Oadby and Wigston Borough, Leicester City, and Charnwood Borough. 1.2 The sub-regional centre is Market Harborough; key centres are recognised as Broughton Astley and Lutterworth; rural centres are Kibworth, Fleckney, Great Glen, Billesdon, Ullesthorpe and Husbands Bosworth. 1.3 Harborough District comprises 91 parishes, of which 45 have parish councils and 42 are parish meetings (3 joint parish meetings represent 7 separate parishes). The town of Market Harborough is unparished. 1.4 There are a number of main ‘A’ roads that link the main urban settlements within and outside the District. The A4303/A4304 serves between Harborough and Lutterworth, and the A426 links Lutterworth to Rugby. The A6 links Market Harborough directly to Leicester and the A14 links to Kettering and the South. The main urban areas of the District are close to the intersection of the M1, M6 and A14. 1.5 The midland mainline runs through the district with London just over an hour’s journey from Market Harborough. Harborough’s rural nature, and its proximity to London by rail, make it an increasingly attractive place for commuters to live. 1.6 The 2011 Census recorded the population of the Harborough District as 85,382. The Office for National Statistics estimates that the population of Harborough District will increase to 100,800 by 2033. 2015 2020 2025 2030 2031 2032 2033 87,400 91,300 95,300 98,900 99,600 100,200 100,800 1.7 The registered electorate was 68,492 in July 2016 and this is expected to grow to in excess of 80,000 by 2020/21 (a growth in excess of 16%). Approximately 3000 electors were removed from the register of electors in December 2015 as not confirmed through Individual Electoral Registration although many of these have re- registered in the run up to the EU Referendum. Empty properties have been taken into account in forecasting future electoral growth, along with the Council’s 5 year housing land supply statistics (at parish level). 1.8 The last electoral review of the district was completed in 2002 (final recommendation published June 2002). The review set council size at 37 (no change) and reduced the number of wards from 26 to 25. The electorate at the start of the review (2001) was 60,504 which was envisaged in the final report to rise to 63,468 by 2006. Section 2 2.0 The Decision-Making Process 2.1 The Local Government Act 2000 fundamentally altered the political management of local authorities by separating executive from non-executive functions. Previously HDC had been managed, like all local authorities in England, by a range of Committees each with its own remit and responsibility for overseeing a function of the Council. 2.2 The LGA 2000 was significant as, whilst Full Council now sets the broad policy and budgetary framework, much of the executive decision-making was placed within the Executive. There was no requirement that the Executive had to have political proportionality and thus could be completely made up of the majority political group. There is no intention to change from the Executive system of governance. 2.3 The Electoral Review Committee is clear that the role of a Councillor for the majority has significantly changed in the last 10 years with the Councillor typically spending less time in the Council at various meetings, but proportionately more time performing a community leadership role within their localities. Full Council 2.4 The Council currently has 37 Councillors, elected every four years at a single set of elections, with the last being in May 2015. All Councillors are Members of Full Council. Full Council is responsible for appointing the Leader and the Committees of the Council and for setting its Budget and Policy Framework on the recommendation of the Executive. The Full Council meets on average 10 times per year. Occasionally the Council has found there is a need for additional ad hoc meetings to conduct the business. Executive 2.5 District Council operates a Strong Leader model with an Executive appointed by the Leader. The Executive is responsible for most day-to-day decisions with a Scheme of Delegation to support Officers with delivery. The Executive comprises the Leader, who is elected by the Council, and 6 other Councillors whom the Leader appoints. Individual Members of the Executive (also known as Portfolio holders) are allocated responsibility for the Council’s Priorities. There are currently 7 Members of the Executive. The Executive meets to perform its collective executive function on a monthly basis. The Council is not aware of any major change in legislation that would give the Executive greater or fewer responsibilities at Executive level and would therefore justify the need for a review in the size of the Executive. Given the experience of running an Executive of 7 Members it is felt that this number, the division of portfolio holder responsibilities and frequency of meetings enables effective and convenient leadership of the authority. The use of Portfolios enables Executive Members to establish a close working relationship with Officers Other Committees 2.6 In respect of other Committees, the following Committees are scheduled to meet on a regular basis:- Planning Governance and Audit Ethical Governance Licensing and Regulatory Committees meeting on an intermittent basis:- Constitutional Review Committee (4x each year) Employment Committee (ad hoc) Licensing hearings / Appeals ( ad hoc ) Details of current Committee arrangements are set out in Appendix D. Quasi-Judicial Processes 2.7 The Planning Committee currently meets 12 times a year to determine planning applications and consider other planning issues. The Planning Committee has 12 Members with places allocated according to proportionality rules and there is a Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Planning Committee meetings currently last around three hours. Licensing and Regulatory Committees 2.8 12 Members sit on the Licensing and Regulatory Committees. The places are allocated according to proportionality rules. A Licensing Panel of 3 Members sits to hear appeals, cases of non-compliance etc. Membership of this is drawn from membership of the Licensing Committee depending on availability. The Panel does not need to be proportionate. The main Committee meets on an ad hoc basis and the Panel as and when it is required to hear appeals etc. A meeting of the Committee lasts on average 1 - 2 hours, and a meeting of the Panel lasts between 1 – 3 hours. All Members of the Committee are given basic training by the Council on the legal and technical processes to be applied. Additional external training is also offered if applicable/available. Section 3 3.0 The Scrutiny Process 3.1 The Local Government Act 2000 required each local authority such as Harborough District Council to set up a scrutiny process, which means Scrutiny Committees can be viewed in the same way as Planning and Licensing Committees in that they are a statutory function of the Council. However, what sets Scrutiny apart from quasi- judicial Committees is that it has continued to evolve in its core functions since the Local Government Act 2000 with various other pieces of legislation such as: Police and Justice Act 2006 – requires all Councils to have a Scrutiny Committee that has the power to consider crime and disorder issues. Local Government and Public Involvement Act 2007 – Allowing Councillors to raise issues of local concern as a Call for Action and requiring certain partners to provide information to Overview and Scrutiny and have regard to its recommendations. 3.2 A review of the Scrutiny function took place in 2015/2016 and with effect from Annual Council 2016 the Scrutiny function at Harborough comprises: (i) the Scrutiny Commission composed of ten members, (a reduction of 20 members) (ii) two Scrutiny Panels, named “Performance Scrutiny Panel” and “Communities Scrutiny Panel” and each composed of seven members, ( a reduction of 3 members per panel) (iii) Scrutiny Task Groups ( essentially task and finish one –off reviews the size of the panel is determined by its remit but is generally 7) These further reductions build on reductions made in 2012 which reduced Scrutiny Committees from 3 to 2. Greater flexibility of operation and more use of small task and finish groups has meant the reduction in Committees has not increased Member workloads. There is very limited use of “Call-In” powers. Section 4 4.0 Representational Role 4.1 Information has been sought from Members on their current duties. The response to a questionnaire is summarised in Appendix A. 4.2 There are currently 27 places available on Outside Bodies. Details of current Outside Bodies are included in Appendix B. In addition, a significant proportion of nominees (20 out of 27) are Cabinet Members. Time commitment to Outside Bodies varies greatly. Reducing the overall number of Councillors should not significantly overburden the remaining Members in this respect. 4.3 There are 91 Parishes in the District of Harborough represented by a mixture of Parish Councils and Parish Meetings. There are 45 Parish Councils and 42 parish meetings (7 separate parish meetings are represented by 3 joint parish meetings). The current distribution of Parish Councils and meetings is shown in Appendix C. The involvement of District Members with Parish Representatives varies. Some District Members are actually Parish Councillors and some attend Parish Council meetings and Parish Meetings. 4.4 The Council has a number of channels of communication with Parishes.