Community Governance Review
The Community Governance Review has now ended.
The final recommendations of the review were submitted to Council on 7 December 2022 and were approved. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England gave their consent to the final recommendations of the review. A Community Governance Order was made in January 2023 and the electoral register was published on the new boundaries on 1 February 2023.
The 4 May 2023 parish and town council elections will be run on the new parish / town council boundaries and arrangements.
A PDF of the Community Governance Order and accompanying maps is below. A hard copy of the order is available to view at the Civic Centre council offices.
The drafted and published leaflets and responses submitted up to and including the 16th September 2022 deadline by the Parish Council can be found below:
Colney Heath Ward CGR Submission Shaw and Burns 130922
Colney Heath Ward CGR Submission Slaughter and Llewellin 130922
Why did SADC conduct a review?
It was decided to conduct a Community Governance Review (CGR) because it is good practice to carry one out every 10-15 years. The purpose of the review was to enable the Council to consider what, if any, changes were needed to parish council/town council arrangements.
What did the review consider?
The review considered the whole of the St Albans City and District area. The district retains 8 parish councils and 1 town council.
The review considered whether the community governance arrangements across the district were fit for purpose. It took account of areas of new or proposed housing to determine whether changes to existing boundaries were required because of these developments.
The review also considered;
● whether to ward unwarded parishes, including whether to create new parish council(s) or make changes to existing parish arrangements.
● any other community governance related proposals that arose during the review.
Timetable
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Approval of timetable and terms of reference for the Community Governance Review [CGR] by the Policy Committee. | 4th November 2021 |
| Formal commencement of CGR. | 4th January 2022 |
| Initial consultation stage. | 4th January to 31st March 2022 |
| Report to Policy Committee on proposed draft recommendations. | June 2022 |
| Draft recommendations published. | 1st July 2022 |
| Consultation on draft recommendations. | 1st July to 16th September 2022 |
| Proposed final recommendations submitted to Policy Committee. | 24th November 2022 |
| Final recommendations submitted to Council. | 7th December 2022 |
| Community Governance Order(s) made. | January 2023 |
Final Recommendations
All of the comments received during the second round of consultation were reported to the Policy Committee on 24 November 2022.
The final recommendations of the review were submitted to Council on 7 December 2022 and were approved.
The Final Recommendations Report below lists the final recommendations and provides the background and reasoning for each decision. For the appendices listed in the report, please see the maps section below and / or pages 121 – 138 of the public reports pack from the 7 December 2022 Council meeting.
As well as agreeing that a Community Governance review should be carried out, the Council set out broad terms of reference for the review. The below document provides more detailed information on the scope of the review, along with its timescale.
Public consultations
Two periods of consultation were held during the review:
- 4 January to 31 March 2022 – Initial public consultation stage
- This consultation stage provided an opportunity for the public and key stakeholders to let the Council know of any view they might have on the present community governance arrangements in the district. This period offered a broad opportunity to let the Council know of any suggestions or concerns about how well the community governance arrangements operate in the district. 50 responses were received and reported to the Council’s Policy Committee on 23 June 2022.
During the initial consultation stage a number of suggestions were made about community governance in the district. A report listing all of these suggestions was submitted to the Policy Committee on 23 June 2022 and a number of draft recommendations were agreed for a further round of public consultation. Details of these recommendations are provided below:
- 1 July to 16 September 2022 – Public consultation on the draft recommendations
- The draft recommendations formed the basis of the second round of consultation. 180 responses were received and reported to the Council’s Policy Committee on 24 November 2022.
Please find our Privacy Notice below:
Predicted electorates
We calculated the predicted electorates per polling district for 2027 to assess any impact that population changes and housing development might have in the district within the next five years.
On 4 January 2022, at the start of the Community Governance Review (CGR), predicted electorates for 2026/2027 were published per polling district. These predictions were based on the polling district boundaries in place on 4 January 2022.
Following the Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s (LGBCE) review of district ward boundaries, Electoral Services conducted a polling district review to align polling districts with the new district ward boundaries. The new polling districts were approved by the council’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee on 25 January 2022. The electoral register was published on the new district ward and polling district boundaries on 1 February 2022.
Therefore, the CGR predicted electorates for 2026/2027 have been recalculated based on the new (1 February 2022) polling district boundaries.