Agenda item

The Council received the report of the proper officer (Democratic Services and Elections Manager) on the review of the allocation of seats on committees, consequent upon the following:

·       the death of Councillor Patrick Sheard on 5 June 2020, which had resulted in the reduction in the membership of the Guildford Greenbelt Group on the Council to three; and

·       the constitution of a new political group on the Council (the ‘Conservative Independent Group’), with effect from 2 July 2020

The political balance on the Council was now:

Guildford Liberal Democrats: 17

Residents for Guildford and Villages: 16

Conservatives: 4

Conservative Independent Group: 4

Guildford Greenbelt Group: 3

Labour: 2 

Independent: 1

Vacancy: 1

The Council noted that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was not currently possible to hold a by-election in respect of the vacancy in the Send ward until 6 May 2021.

Under Council Procedure Rule 23, whenever there was a change in the political constitution of the Council, the Council must, as soon as reasonably practicable, review the allocation of seats on committees to political groups.

The Council was informed that following Councillor Sheard’s death group leaders had discussed, and had informally agreed, that as it was not possible to hold a by-election, there should be no change in the Guildford Greenbelt Group’s current allocation of seats pending such by-election in May 2021.  It was possible for the Council to determine that no changes be made to the current numerical allocation of seats to the Guildford Greenbelt Group until a by-election is held, provided that no councillor voted against the proposal at this meeting.  If that were agreed, the Council would then have to agree a numerical allocation of seats on committees to accommodate the new Conservative Independent Group for the remainder of the 2020-21 Municipal Year, which could be done by way of a simple majority vote.

In that regard, the report had set out two options setting out calculations of numerical allocation of seats on committees dependent on the outcome of the vote in respect of whether any changes should be made to the allocation of seats to the Guildford Greenbelt Group.

Accordingly, the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Joss Bigmore proposed a motion to address the above-mentioned matters, which was seconded by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Caroline Reeves.

Following the debate on the motion, Councillor Nigel Manning proposed, and the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Marsha Moseley seconded, the following amendment:

“To amend the proposed allocation of seats in Options 1 and 2 between the Conservative Group and Conservative Independent Group as follows:

o   on the Community EAB, so that both the Conservative Group and the Conservative Independent Group have one seat each; and

o   on the Planning Committee, so that the Conservative Group has two seats and the Conservative Independent Group has one seat”.

Following the debate on the amendment, it was put to the vote and was lost.  Under the Remote Meetings Protocol, a roll call was taken to record the vote on the amendment, the results of which were 4 councillors voting in favour, 27 against, and 12 abstentions, as follows:

Following the vote on the amendment, the Council

RESOLVED: 

(1)        That, in the light of the vacancy in the Send ward caused by the death of Councillor Patrick Sheard and the postponement of any by-election to fill that vacancy until 6 May 2021, no changes be made to the Guildford Greenbelt Group’s current allocation of seats on committees for the 2020-21 municipal year as agreed by the Council on 19 May 2020 and shown in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Council.

Under the Remote Meetings Protocol, a roll call was taken to record the vote on paragraph (1) of the motion above, the results of which were 41 councillors voting in favour, none against, and 3 abstentions, as follows:

(2)        That, in the light of the constitution of the new Conservative Independent Group, the proposed numerical allocation of seats on committees for the remainder of the 2020-21 Municipal Year, as shown as Option 1 in Appendix 3 to the report submitted to the Council, and set out below, be adopted.

Under the Remote Meetings Protocol, a roll call was taken to record the vote on paragraph (2) of the motion above, the results of which were 36 councillors voting in favour, 1 against, and 8 abstentions, as follows:

Reason:

To enable the Council to comply with Council Procedure Rule 23 in respect of the allocation of seats on committees to political groups and with its obligations under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 in respect of the political proportionality on those committees.