CHESHIRE WEST & CHESTER COUNCIL: ELECTORAL REVIEW

Submission to the Boundary Committee on Council Size.

1 Context

1.1 This submission sets out Cheshire West & Chester Council’s proposal on Council size. This is the first issue to be addressed in the electoral review of the area. The proposal is for a Council of 75 elected Members in Cheshire West & Chester. This proposal was made by resolution of the Council on 2 April 2009 at its first meeting after vesting day, on which it replaced former county and district councils. The three political parties represented on the Council; Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat, concurred in the making of the Council’s resolution.

1.2 The proposal has been formulated having regard to key principles of electoral review; that local government should be convenient to local people and effective. Further to these principles, the Council is of the belief that its proposal will ensure that all roles at political level can be carried out effectively, and will enable the authority to achieve its objective of being an exceptionally excellent Council.

1.3 Cheshire West & Chester is a newly created Unitary Council, delivering by direct provision or by commissioning, the full range of Local Authority services in its area. The range of its products is tremendous - from a direction sign on a footpath to the care of a vulnerable child. The Council has at its heart, the wish to serve the whole community of those who live in, work in, or otherwise visit Cheshire West and Chester. It serves a population of 329,100, the fourth largest of Unitary Local Authorities in the North West and the sixteenth largest in England. The Council covers an area of over 94,000 hectares, (360 square miles). It has a budget which, including spending on schools, is around £500m, reflecting the enormous financial investment in our communities.

1.4 The population of the area is growing, even through a time of economic downturn. Forecast growth over the period to 2023 is 4% of the present total. However, it is not just in terms of total numbers that the population is changing. In 2008, 21% of the population of the area was aged under 18, whilst 18% were aged 65 and over. In 5 years’ time, those groups will be of equal size, and in a further 5 years, up to 2018, the 65 and overs will form 23% of the population whilst under-18s will be the smaller group, 19% of the total. This relative change is reflected in the fact that the total population growth between 2008 and 2013 represents an increase in the number of electors.

1.5 Cheshire West & Chester has major towns and extensive rural tracts. Over half (53%) of the electorate live in areas which are classed urban or predominantly urban, 13% live in areas that are rural or predominantly rural. Reflecting the form of development in the area, some of which is suburban in character, 12% of electors live in areas which are best described as more urban than rural whilst 22% live in areas more rural than urban. Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich and Winsford are the largest urban areas, but there are smaller towns and large villages which also provide focal service points for the surrounding rural areas. The rural northern part of the Council’s area is traversed by the M56, providing a fast road route into both Manchester and Liverpool, giving rise to occupation of by commuters, whilst some residents of the southern rural parts of the Borough experience some of the conditions of rural isolation. This profile places different demands on Councillors, some of whom represent wholly urban populations, occupying densely populated

areas, whilst others represent dispersed communities in extensive, sparsely populated wards. This affects particularly how they relate to local communities with different characteristics, and significantly, how electors relate to their elected representatives.

1.6 The conditions of an area are often described by reference to the Indices of Deprivation, a series of measures of social and economic characteristics including income, health, education, housing conditions and accessibility to services. These are brought together in the most commonly-reported measure, the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Data are presented by reference to local geographic areas; a jigsaw map of over 32,000 of these areas covers the whole of England. In the diagram below, the population of Cheshire West and Chester is shown by reference to a scale in which these data reporting areas are arranged from those showing the greatest deprivation to those showing the least.

Population and Multiple Deprivation

350000 300000 250000

200000 150000 100000

Population Cumulative 50000 0 1 112131415161718191 Area Rank of Multiple Deprivation (percentile)

1.7 The diagram shows that Cheshire West & Chester represents, in terms of deprivation, a reflection of England. About 50,000 Cheshire residents live in the most deprived 20% of areas in England whilst around 75,000 live in the least deprived 20%. In many national and European programmes to address deprivation, the areas which are amongst the most deprived 20% nationally are targeted. This does not, of course, mean that in the least deprived areas, there are not individuals in the community who may be experiencing severe deprivation. It means that in their work to address the needs of their constituents, Members of the Council who represent communities in deprived areas will engage with national funding mechanisms, whilst those representing deprived residents of less deprived areas will need to engage with service providers directly. The deprivation data does therefore indicate that within Cheshire West and Chester is a diversity of areas and consequently a diversity of representational issues for elected Councillors, individually and collectively, to address.

1.8 Faced with this, the Council’s vision is of Customer first, Value for Money, Best Practice and highlights the Council’s ambition to place its stakeholders at the heart of everything it does.

1.9 In order to deliver on these aims and Vision, the Council requires clear leadership and full engagement at the Political level. Critical to this will be the number of Councillors available to participate fully in all aspects of the life and work of the

Council. This submission sets out proposals which argue for a Council of 75 Members, and the rationale and evidence leading to this conclusion.

2 The Case for the Council’s Proposal.

2.1 The human resource of the Council is considerable; it falls into two categories; paid employees and elected Councillors. Councillors have collective and individual tasks. It is essential for success that the Council has and retains the Councillors with a complimentary range of skill, knowledge and experience to fulfil those tasks.

2.2 Setting the council size figure at an appropriate level, will mean consequently that the collective decision-making and scrutiny workload is appropriately shared and that the number of constituents that each Councillor individually has to represent does not give rise to unmanageable caseloads. The total workload each Councillor will have, in terms of hours required to perform the role, should not be intolerable. Failure to address effectively the task of setting size may lead to fewer people wishing to stand for office and in turn may lead to candidates from less diverse backgrounds, and range of skill, knowledge and experience. Such an outcome would be likely to ill-serve the community as a whole.

2.3 The recent report of the Councillors’ Commission emphasises this point and recommends that the role of the Councillor must be compatible with full- or part- time employment and/or with care responsibilities, for example, the care of family members. This is important, for Councillors with direct experience of the circumstances with which their constituents are faced will ensure that the Council will perform better for those people. The report goes on to suggest that it must be made easier for people, including those that are busy in other fields, whether personal or professional, to serve as Councillors. The clear implication here is that Councillor workloads must be reasonable to enable people from all walks of life to stand for election.

2.4 The 2008 National Census of Local Authority Councillors published in January 2009 by the Local Government Association and IDeA reveals that on average Councillors spend 22 hours per week on Council related business. In non- Metropolitan Unitary Councils this figure was higher at 26.2 hours. For those Members who hold senior positions such as Council and Group Leaders and Members of the Cabinet, the Census confirms that Council work is a full-time occupation. Accordingly the number of Councillors has to be sufficient to allow Members capacity to discharge all of their roles effectively and to have the time to do so. This includes the capacity to engage fully with local communities, a key priority for Cheshire West & Chester Council.

2.5 This leads directly to the question, How Many Councillors Does Cheshire West & Chester Council need?

2.6 The standard approach to solving the question is to consider the number of hours which a Council requires/expects its Members to work on Council business

2.7 This depends on; the definition of the task and its demands the contribution one Councillor can make.

2.8 The Council has set itself the ambition of exceptional excellence. This places particular demands that paid employees and elected Councillors work innovatively

and challenge the status quo, and do things differently. The Council’s requirement from the electoral review is that its conclusions reflect and sustain its ambition.

2.9 Cheshire West and Chester currently has 72 elected Members. This figure was set out in the proposal for unitary status which Government approved. It represented a pragmatic arrangement, based on the returning of 3 members for each of the 24 Cheshire County Council electoral divisions for the area. This arrangement facilitated the election of a Shadow Council in May 2008. Considered to be a broadly “workable” figure for the purposes of transition, the figure of 72 was reached without rigorous examination of the new Council’s decision-making, regulatory and scrutiny structures. The current electoral review has provided the opportunity to test the degree to which 72 is an appropriate number, and the degree to which alternative Council sizes may better meet the needs of the Council and the communities it serves.

3 Roles and Responsibilities

3.1 Cheshire West and Chester Members have set out the Members’ task: (Member Learning Panel, 9 December 2008). Their description which is summarised below is of a baseline for all Members;

 To represent ward interests by providing a voice for all sectors of the community  To be a visible and recognisable presence in the community  To develop the role as a community champion  To be a channel of communication to the community on council strategies, policies, services and procedures  To represent individual constituents and local organisations, undertaking casework on their behalf.  To promote the principles of equality, tolerance and local democracy in local communities  To encourage community participation in the Council’s decision-making  To make decisions and oversee council performance  To undertake quasi-judicial roles, e.g. licensing  To represent the Council on local, regional and national outside bodies and partnerships.

3.2 Councillors are, therefore, representatives of individual and community interests; decision-makers and regulators, scrutineers of the decisions and actions of the Council and other public sector organisations. Within the Council’s vision of its service to communities, Members are however also to be leaders of their community – stimulating engagement in community and democracy. This includes working with the Area Partnerships and Community Forums.

3.3 Translating the elements of the Members’ task can be summarised into three broad categories;  Attendance at Council meetings - either formal meetings of the Council or its Committees, or preparatory meetings with officers or party group colleagues, or meetings with partner organisations  Engaging with constituents and communities, or pursuing enquiries on their behalf  Other activities such as meetings of external bodies, travel and training.

3.4 The Councillor’s political role includes participation in the Party Group meetings and briefings, engagement in regional and national Party Political activities, and for some Members specific roles with the Group e.g. Group Secretary or Whip.

3.5 To this baseline must be added, for all Members, one or more of the particular roles as summarised below. In addition, there are specific roles to be filled;

Leader (and Deputy) Leader of the Opposition and Political Group Leaders Executive Member (Portfolio Holder) Scrutiny Chair Policy Development Chair Scrutiny Member Chair of a Regulatory Committee (Planning and Licensing Committees and Hearings of Standards Committee Also: Employment Appeals and Appointments Panels) Member of a Regulatory Committee Chairman and Deputy Chairman

3.6 The Local Government Act 2000 requires that the Council adopts “Executive arrangements”. Accordingly, the full Council has agreed the overall policy and planning framework for the Authority and sets the annual budget, leaving the bulk of the operational decision-making to the Executive. Statutorily, the maximum permitted number of Cabinet Members is ten. Cheshire West & Chester Council will, however, have eight Executive Portfolios. These are;

 Corporate Services Portfolio  Adult Services Portfolio  Area and Community Services Portfolio  Culture and Recreational Portfolio  Prosperity Portfolio  Education and Children Portfolio  Environment Portfolio  Finance Portfolio

3.7 Taking the first of the core elements of the Member’s role, attendance at meetings, we can consider the decision-making and scrutiny structure which has been created for Cheshire West & Chester.

Members Notes Council All Members Executive 8 Policy Development Boards 49 7 x 7 members (14 x 4 estimated) Members "volunteering" Scrutiny Task & Finish Groups for participation according to interest or expertise or relevance to ward issues Member Learning Panel 7 Local Development Framework Panel 7 Overview & Scrutiny Board 12 Children & Young Persons Scrutiny 9

Board Community Safety Scrutiny Board 12 Health & Adult Services Scrutiny 9 Board Corporate Scrutiny Board 9 Ellesmere Port Housing Panel 5 Strategic Planning Board 11 Planning Board A 9 Planning Board B 9 Licensing Panel 15 Licensing Ad Hoc Sub Committee (a) Sub-Committees of 3 Licensing Ad Hoc Sub Committee (b) members drawn from Licensing Ad Hoc Sub Committee (c) the Panel's total of 15, Public Rights Of Way Panel 7 Highways Liaison Panel 9 5 (+ 6 independent and Standards Committee 5 3 parish) Audit & Governance Committee 9 Staffing Committee 7 Staffing - Employment Appeals Sub 3 Committee (3 members drawn from pool of 11 for each Appeals Sub Committee 11 sub-committee(e.g. School Transport Appeals)) 4 (+ 4 Cheshire West & Pensions Board 4 Chester, 1 Warrington, 1 Halton, 1 Unions) Standards - Assessment Sub Each sub-committee is Committee drawn from the Standards - Review Sub Committee Standards Committee Standards - Hearings Sub Committee Area Partnership Board (APB) 10 5 x 2 (+ partners) arrangements and APB Action Committees member involvement to be determined All members - arrangements and Local Forums member involvement to be determined Excludes Membership of the Council itself and Totals 236 of Community Forums, to which all Members belong

3.8 This indicates a total of 236 roles (excluding the Council itself and Community Forums) to be shared by Councillors in addition to the fundamental role as a member of the Council.

3.9 The roles described above place demands, although not necessarily equal demands, on the Members who hold them. The 2008 Council Members’ Census gathered information about participation in Council work across the country. In

particular, it tells us about English non-metropolitan unitary councils, and so describes council work of a type which is not currently done in Cheshire’s erstwhile two-tier system. 2164 members of unitary councils responding to the Census were engaged, on average (mean), in 3.9 committees or sub-committees of their Councils. Median and modal calculations of the same data indicate that membership of 3 committees is average.

3.10 The Executive Group roles may be taken as distinct roles. This is because of the particular extent to which Executive Members are required to work with officers of the Council to develop corporate and service policy and delivery and participate in strategic national and regional bodies. Executive roles have been considered both in national research and in specific electoral review areas to be equivalent to full- time roles. In preparing their own proposals for Electoral Review in their own areas, Wiltshire County Council and Cornwall’s Implementation Executive both concluded that, the required Executive was excepted from the aggregation of Committee roles in the determination of appropriate Council Size. Similarly, a Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) officer commented that “for a directly elected mayor, leader of a council or an executive member in a large authority, the work and time commitment involved can be the equivalent of a full-time job”.

3.11 Cheshire West & Chester’s constitution provides for up to 10 members of an Executive Group, that group to include the Leader of the Council and the Deputy Leader - that constitutional provision is consistent with legislative requirements. In practice, the Council has resolved to have an Executive Group of 8 (Leader plus seven), reflecting the Council’s policy and operational structure and the support to be given to Executive Group members by policy development boards. These boards provide the opportunity for non-executive members from all political parties, to contribute to the formulation and examination of policy options. It is an approach which also broadens the scope for the representation of community issues in the policy development process. This will, however, enable Executive Members to both maintain their Ward level work and to represent the Council regionally and nationally, within an overall context of a manageable workload. The figure of 8 Executive Members is used in analyses below.

3.12 Using the average number of committee memberships from the 2008 councillors’ census would suggest that a Council of between 66 and 84 members would be appropriate. Caution must be used with use of statistics representing “the average” however; Cheshire West & Chester does not wish to act in average ways, achieving average results for its community.

3.13 Excepting the Council’s Executive Group, the policy development, governance, scrutiny and regulatory structure calls for a total of 1839 attendances at meetings per year. This amounts to 29 attendances per year for each non-Executive Councillor if the Council size is 72. To this must be added 6 council meetings and 4 area forum meetings for every member of the Council, each year. Adding political group meetings before each Council and attendance at Executive Group and Committee meetings as a visiting Member, and other special meetings, on average one attendance per month, would increase the number to 57 meetings.

3.14 At a minimum, preparation time, travelling to meetings and a meeting itself may require, four hours. Some meetings will demand more time than others; planning committees are likely, for example, to undertake visits to the site of some proposed developments in order properly, to judge the likely impact of development should it be permitted. In other instances, more time will be required if people are to be given a fair hearing, for example, in appeals cases.

3.15 Taking the mix of more complex and less complex meetings, suggests an estimation of, on average, 5.6 hours per meeting in preparation, travel and attendance. This amounts therefore to 320 hrs per year. Having regard to periods of relative inactivity of Committees around Christmas and the summer recess, these hours are likely to be spread over 46 weeks of the year, reflecting 7 hours per week. This figure would fall to 6.8 hours per week in a 75-Member Council. This figure does not represent any additional requirement which arises when Councillors hold senior positions, such as responsibility for leading political group activity or taking the chair in Council meetings.

3.16 The national census of Councillors (2008) suggests that Councillors who don’t hold senior positions on their Councils spend on average, 7.4 hours per week at Council meetings. This indicates that the Council’s structure provides for a basic level of engagement (that is for Members who neither are Executive Group Members nor hold senior positions such as Chairing committees, leading political groups or holding any “champion” roles) which Council Members might reasonably be expected to undertake whilst creating opportunity for the increased levels of community leadership activity which Cheshire West and Chester envisage.

3.17 If the review were to conclude variation of electoral arrangements merely by reducing the number of members for each current ward to 2, or increasing it to 4 per ward, then this would result in non-Executive Members each holding 5.7 Committee roles (in a 48-Member Council), or 2.6 in a 96-Member Council. This would translate to attendance at meetings for 9 hours per week in a 48-Member Council or 6 in the larger Council.

The Executive

3.18 Executive roles are generally considered to be full-time roles. To illustrate this, the nature and complexity of the roles of each of Cheshire West and Chester’s Executive are shown in Appendix 1. The Executive meets formally once per month, to deal collectively with the high level operational and more strategic business, including key decisions of the Authority. Additionally, the Executive has adopted a scheme of delegation to the individual Portfolio-holders, so that they are able to take decisions as appropriate within their portfolio responsibility. It is expected that meetings of the Executive will be attended by the relevant Scrutiny Members (primarily the Chair and/or Vice Chair of the related Scrutiny Boards).

3.19 The Executive also meets informally; both in private and with officers of the Council present (mainly the Cheshire West & Chester Corporate Management Team). The purpose of these meetings is to consider and review the Council’s priorities and strategy, and to enable the Executive to be briefed on forthcoming business. Portfolio holders may be required to attend meetings of Scrutiny Committees (or Task and Finish Reviews) to account for their decisions.

3.20 Of course, each Councillor has only one Leader, and a limited number of portfolio holders. However, Committees, Sub-Committees, Boards and Panels will require 33 Chairs. The 2008 Census of Local Authority Members found that nationally, those Councillors who held “senior” positions, such as Chairmanship or Group Leadership spent on average 25.4 hrs per week on Council business whilst for those who didn’t hold senior positions spent 18.2 hours on average. This is not a golden rule however. Nearly 12% of senior position holders spent more than 40 hours per week on Council business as did over 3% of those who don’t hold senior positions; it isn’t just portfolio holders who put in a full week’s work therefore.

The Ward Member Role

3.21 At the heart of the role of Councillor is the relationship he or she has with the electorate, or rather the whole community, for Councillors have the welfare of others also to consider - those under voting age, those not registered, those who work in the area but who live outside, and those who visit the area for other reasons. However, it is electors with whom Members have the greatest direct engagement. This takes the form of people seeking help in getting services, people with complaints about services, and people wishing to influence operational or policy decisions to be made by the Council about issues which have a direct personal or neighbourhood significance. Recent legislative changes which require Councillors, as part of their community leadership role to address Community Calls for Action will increase the impact, in terms of hours spent, the Ward role.

3.22 Often, contacts are initiated by electors, but equally, they may be initiated by Councillors. A Councillor does this in order to gauge the perception of issues and services which may be current amongst the electorate. It forms part of the means by which a Councillor may equip himself or herself with sufficient knowledge to be able to act on the behalf of the elector or the local community.

3.23 This brings into direct consideration, the relationship between the number of Councillors for an area and the number of electors for the greater the number each Councillor represents (the electoral ratio) the greater will be the requirement for this type of engagement.

3.24 In a survey conducted in Glasgow in 2003, researchers found that around one in ten residents made contact with their local Councillor over the previous 12 months. Just under half of this group made contact about a personal issue or problem, while a similar proportion contacted their Councillor about a wider community issue. The data may not be directly applicable to Cheshire West and Chester Council in 2009 but it serves to remind that high electoral ratios will increase the time members will spend dealing with constituent caseload.

3.25 There is no presumed electoral ratio for the purposes of electoral review: no “target figure”. The table below shows the electoral ratio in Cheshire West and Chester in comparison with other unitary authorities, indicating some current close matches. However, the table does not indicate the full scope of electoral ratios nationally, which for all-purpose councils, range from one Councillor for around 1,000 electors (Rutland) to one for every 6,000 (Birmingham). The average electoral ratio for non- metropolitan unitary councils in England is one elected Member for every 2,860 electors.

Electoral Ratios*: Electors Per Electors Members Member Warrington UA 154835 58 2670 North East Lincolnshire UA 116591 42 2776 South Gloucestershire UA 200463 70 2864 North Lincolnshire UA 125697 43 2923 Shropshire 230143 74 3110 Medway UA 184220 55 3349 Cornwall 414142 123 3367 CW&C Current 251270 72 3490

Wiltshire 345019 98 3521 Cheshire East Current 286759 81 3540 East Riding of Yorkshire UA 266070 67 3971 Bristol, City of UA 303045 70 4329

*2008 data used for comparative purposes

3.26 The relationship with constituents translates to, on average, almost 9 hours work per week for Members of unitary councils. That time is made up of consultations with electors, writing letters to them or on their behalf, meeting with their council’s paid staff to sort out an elector’s problems, “surgeries” in which Councillors provide an opportunity for electors to discuss issues or problems face-to-face, telephone conversations, etc. It is a diverse range of activities, but not one in which each elector is granted a certain amount of time. Some issues will be dealt with very easily, by passing on a call for a repair to a streetlight for example, whilst others will take many many hours, sometimes spread over a period of months. It is difficult to anticipate how Cheshire West & Chester may differ, in respect of average time spent on this activity, from the results obtained from the Members’ Census returns for other unitary councils. However, if 9 hours per week were taken to represent average time on constituent matters for an average of one Member per 2,860 electors, this may translate to 11 hours in a 72-Member Council or 10.5 in a 75- Member Council

3.27 In some areas, a Member will live close to his or her electors. In an urban area where population density is high, a Councillors “quota” of electors will all live within a relatively small area. In a sparsely-populated rural area, an equivalent number of electors may be spread over an area several times greater in extent than that of their urban counterparts. This can mean that to engage in the same degree of functional contact, a Councillor for a rural area must spend considerably more time travelling than would a Councillor for an urban area. Electronic communications, particularly e-mail, has however been contributory in reducing that differential.

3.28 Cheshire West & Chester Council’s ambition for Excellence envisages Members who maintain effective contact with, and provide an effective service to their electorate. In a largely rural area, this suggests that Birmingham’s electoral ratio would be too high, and would result in too few members to operate effectively, the decision-making, scrutiny and regulatory structures, whilst a ratio as low as that in Rutland would result in a total number of Councillors which would under-use their capacity through those same structures. Similarly, a 48-Member Council would result in 16 hours per week spent on constituency matters whilst 96-Members would each be occupied for only 8 hours per week.

External Bodies, Member Development, etc.

3.29 There is a third category of activity which consumes a Councillor’s time. This is not a “mopping up” category, but an important representation of some of the key activities.

3.30 Membership of, or attendance at meetings of outside bodies is significant. At the local level this might be the attendance by a Cheshire West & Chester Member at meetings of parish councils within his or her ward area. It might be, in addition, membership of the board of governors of a local school. At a less local scale, it may involve meetings of primary care trusts or police or fire authorities. However, there are also regional or national bodies on which the Council is represented by one or

more of its Members. In these instances, it is more likely to be Executive Group Members who are appointed rather than non-Executive Members.

3.31 The Council has set out the considerations which it will make in determining appointments it makes to outside bodies

 Statutory Appointments – examples include the Police and Fire Authorities  Appointments to Bodies able to influence policy at a national or regional level – examples include the Local Government Association and Regional Economic and Strategic Planning Bodies  Appointments to Bodies assisting the Council in delivering its strategic objectives and priorities – allowing the authority to appoint to bodies making a direct contribution to its objectives examples include representation on the local colleges, University, Cheshire’s Tourism Board (VCC), Chester Race Company etc  Appointments to organisations receiving major funding from the authority or which provide key public services – examples include housing trusts which had been created by the demising authorities, Museums and Charitable Trusts; Tourism Bodies and Educational Associations. Members appointed to such bodies need to act in the best interests of the body itself

3.32 There are 166 parishes in Cheshire West & Chester, but after allowing for joint parish councils, parish meetings and civil parishes, a total of 87 town and parish councils. These local Councils will expect attendance by Ward Members, at some or all meetings, and on occasion, attendance by other, senior Members of the Council.

3.33 In addition, all Councillors are expected to take up appointments as Local Authority governors on School Governing Bodies. Not all of the Council’s appointments will be taken by elected Members, but a Councillor can take a place on numerous school governing bodies. As these bodies meet at least once each term, and most will appoint Sub-Committees which meet more frequently, a Councillor serving on (say) two Governing bodies would need to make time for possibly 10-12 such meetings per year.

3.34 In addition to the attendances at meetings of external bodies, Members also need to give time to training and the development of their own knowledge and skills. There will be developed a Member Development Programme to enable this. Too few Members would mean insufficient enough time for the Councillors to attend and learn from Member Development activity, diminishing their effectiveness.

3.35 Maintaining and updating skills has been identified as an important factor in the success with which a Councillor may fulfil all the obligations and responsibilities which lie upon him or her. It is part of the “job description” identified by the Council and a readiness to take part, part of the preferred “person specification”. The general annual scale of this requirement is illustrated below.

Member Training & Development All Members = 3 days (3 x 8 hrs) Executive Members = 2 Days (2 x 8 hrs) Member Champions = 1 Day (1 x 8 hrs) Specialisms, e.g.Planning, Licensing = 2 Days (2 x 8 hrs)

3.36 In addition to these general requirements, there may be further needs related to the emergence of local or national issues. There will be, from time to time, a

requirement for Members to attend national or regional consultative conferences, making further demands on their time.

3.37 Again, it is difficult to quantify precisely the time commitment required of Councillors for these activities, but it typically averages 6.4 hours per week for Members of unitary authorities, compared with 5.6 hours for all types of English local authority. This figure includes senior and non-senior members. Nationally, non-Senior Members are likely to spend 4.4 hours per week on these activities, but factored for the difference between all authorities and non-metropolitan unitaries, non-senior Members of unitary councils might be expected to spend 5 hours per week. Again, it is difficult to envisage how Cheshire West & Chester may vary from the councils represented in the Members’ census.

Community Leadership and Local and Partnership Working

3.38 Effective local working and relationship with local communities is seen by the Council as necessary to ensure that investment in service delivery meets the particular needs of individual communities. The Council’s approach to local working is at two levels - Area Programme Boards which together will cover the whole of Cheshire West and Chester. These will take the form of partnership boards, in which the Council and its major partners will work with their communities to identify and assess local needs. They will then inform operational choices to ensure “joined-up” public services in the area. Two Members of the Council will serve on each Area Programme Board; ten Members in total.

3.39 There will be 14 community forums which again, together cover the whole of Cheshire West and Chester. They have been defined by reference to existing Wards; ten are pairs of adjoining wards, four are single wards. All Members will participate in these community forums, using public engagement meetings to identify and evaluate local opportunities for project funding. They will pool budgets of £5,000 assigned to each Member to match, or contribute to, funds raised by and within communities to enable those projects best offering community benefits to proceed.

3.40 Significant to the determination of how many Councillors will be needed is the amount of support each can expect to receive from paid staff. The Leader of the Council will have a personal assistant, responsible for handling much of the incoming and outgoing communications, as well as for activity programming. There will also be particular support to the civic representational role of the Chairman of the Council. Other Councillors will draw on the generality of the Council’s paid staff. For example, they will be needed to uncover and present information, or to respond to individual service queries in respect of which a Member may be facilitating a constituent’s case.

3.41 The numbers of democratic services officers, overview and scrutiny officers and member support officers are considered be sufficient to deliver effective support. The proposed structure has two member support officers, in addition to a member training and support officer. The support arrangements are there for all members. The aim is also to provide IT training for members to a high quality level. This will either be provided by Democratic Services or IT services staff. Members will be well-supported and their skills further enhanced. This will be reviewed in the light of practical experience in 2009. This review will need to take into account members' views.

3.42 The exception to this will be in the support given to area working. It is in working at the local level that the elected Member can be most effective as a leader of his or her community, stimulating engagement in community and democracy. This is because of the combination of the individual Members’ local knowledge, readily identified presence and accessibility to their community. This is reflected not only in the People and Places proposal, which provided the basis for unitary local government in Cheshire, but also it reflects the policy to which Government had regard in approving the proposal.

3.43 This approach which requires a process by which local groups may apply for funding, and crucially, a process for the assessment and evaluation of bids in order that the Council Members for a local area may most effectively choose to which bids the fund maybe awarded. These processes will be facilitated by a small group of staff who will advise Members for one or more Local Areas.

3.44 This indicates that staff support given directly to all members is to facilitate a particular activity, the disbursement of funding to local projects. It does not represent support to allow a radical easing of the elected Member’s more traditional role.

3.45 The statistical analyses of evidence suggests that Cheshire West & Chester’s Shadow Council size of 72 was within an appropriate range; that the People & Places proposal had made broadly the right provision in using a simple formula of 3 for each county council division. A multiple of 2 Members per division (yielding 48 a Council of 48) or 4 (yielding 96 Members) would have been outside of an appropriate range. However, the People & Places proposal offered no especial or precise rationale for a Council size of 72. Meanwhile, the Boundary Committee, in conducting a review needs to settle on a particular number.

3.46 The following table shows how, taking the various Member roles into account, different Council sizes are reflected in the basic demands on Members. The values in the table do not reflect additional demands which arise out of “seniority”; those falling on Executive Members or on chairs of Committees, boards and panels.

Hours per Week spent by non-Senior Members External Attendance at Ward Bodies, Council Representational Development, Meetings Activities etc. Total 48 Members 9 16 5 30 72 Members 7 11 5 23 75 Members 6.8 10.5 5 22.3 96 Members 5.7 5.7 5 16.4

4 Conclusions on Council Size

4.1 The Council’s analyses in respect of Council size have been undertaken only with regard to the burden which might be reasonably expected of a Member returned from an election which attracts candidates from all sections of the community. This analysis coincides however, with that undertaken by the Council’s independent remuneration panel, comprised of representatives of the community at large. That panel concluded that the appropriate demand of time on non-Senior members for Cheshire West and Chester would be 22 hours per week.

4.2 For this reason, it is appropriate to increase only slightly, the current council size, offsetting increased workload in this respect by a reduction in the electoral ratio

from that yielded by the current 72-member council and the consequential individual constituent caseload that may be expected to arise.

4.3 Town and Parish Councils in Cheshire West and Chester have been invited to comment on the matter of Council size. Some have responded to state that their prime concern is the nature of Warding, to be determined by the review, rather than the question of Council size. Only has the view of Northwich Town Council’s Policy & Operations Review Committee been conveyed to Cheshire West and Chester Council: that view is that there should be 75 Members of the Council.

4.3 A Council of 75 members will sustain decision-making and scrutiny, enabling representation of the community’s interest at regional and national level whilst ensuring that the needs of individual citizens and local communities are addressed through the representative work of Councillors. A Council of 75 Members will allocate its roles and responsibilities in a way which does not deter those wishing to engage in local democracy. A Council of 75 Members will engage its elected representatives in the achievement of its ambition for exceptional excellence.

Appendix 1

CHESHIRE WEST and CHESTER PORTFOLIOS With effect from 2 April 2009

CORPORATE SERVICES PORTFOLIO (LEADER Councillor Mike Jones) (Chief Executive’s Directorate) Policy, Performance and Partnerships • Local Strategic Partnerships • Performance Management • Corporate Policy and Equalities Organisational Development and Transformation • Transformation Programme • Service Improvement • Training and Development • Culture and Values • Project and Programme Management Marketing and Communications • Media Relations • Communications • Marketing and Graphic Design Democratic Services • Area Meeting Administration • Member Support • Democratic Services • Overview and Scrutiny • Electoral and Civic Services • Member Development (Finance Portfolio) Civil Protection (Emergency Planning) ______ADULT SERVICES PORTFOLIO (Councillor Brenda Dowding) (Adult Social Care and Health Directorate) Individual Commissioning and Prevention Services • Multi-disciplinary Patch Teams • Specialist Conditions Joint Strategic Commissioning • Strategic Commissioning • Health and Wellbeing • Quality and Performance • Market Development Social Care Provision • Domiciliary Care • Building Based Services • Social Inclusion Services ______AREA COMMUNITY AND SERVICES PORTFOLIO (Councillor Lynn Riley) (Area and Community Services Directorate) Neighbourhoods & Customer Services • Customer Services and Customer Access • Community Safety including Wardens • Neighbourhood & Local ICT • Strategy and Planning • Information Management and Security

• Design and Project (Shared service with Cheshire East) • Service Provision (Shared service with Cheshire East) Regulatory Services • Animal Health & Welfare • Car park Management • Cemeteries Management • Crematorium Management • Environmental Protection • Investigations and Complaints • Licensing Enforcement • Licensing Processes • Markets • Parking Enforcement • Registration Office • Surveillance & Support • Trading Standards Ellesmere Port & Neston Housing Management • Existing Services • Options to address decent homes standard ______CULTURE AND RECREATIONAL PORTFOLIO (Councillor Richard Short) (Regeneration & Culture Directorate) Culture and Recreation Services • Culture & Tourism • Leisure & Green Spaces ______PROSPERITY PORTFOLIO (Councillor Herbert Manley) (Regeneration & Culture Directorate) Regeneration • Employment, Skills and Learning • Special Projects • Economic Development and Investment Strategic Housing and Spatial Planning • Spatial Planning • Housing Strategy and Enabling • Supporting People • Private Sector Housing • Housing Solutions ______EDUCATION AND CHILDREN PORTFOLIO (Councillor Arthur Harada) (Children and Young People’s Directorate) Safeguarding • Safeguarding • Looked after Children • Locality Services • Assessment and Care Strategic Support • School Support • Support Services • School Catering Achievement • School Improvement • Early Years • Inclusion Strategy and Commissioning

• Strategy • Commissioning • Workforce Development ______ENVIRONMENT PORTFOLIO (Councillor Neil Ritchie)` (Environment Directorate) Waste Management and Streetscene • Cemeteries and Crematoria Maintenance • Grounds Maintenance • Public Conveniences • Street Scene Management • Waste Collection • Waste Disposal (including PFI project) • Waste Education / Recycling / Strategy Highways and Transportation • Bridges • Highways DC • Highway Design • Highways Laboratory and Geotechnical Unit • Highways Maintenance • Local Transport Plan (LTP) • Road Safety • Strategic Highways Management (including UTC) • Traffic Management • Transport Co-ordination and Fleet Management Development Management • Biodiversity • Building Control • Climate Change • Conservation and Archaeology • Development Management • Landscape Design • Minerals and Waste Development Control • Urban Design ______FINANCE PORTFOLIO (Councillor Les Ford) (Resources Directorate) Finance • Accounting • Audit and Risk • Corporate Finance • Financial Management • Revenues and Benefits • Purchasing and Exchequer Services Legal Services • Corporate • People Services • Places • Regulatory and Compliance Human Resources • Human Resource Strategy • Health and Safety • Business Partner • Human Resource Services • Employee Service Centre

Procurement Facilities and Asset Management • Capital and Construction • Facilities • Property, Strategy and Information ______