Council caught out in breach of rules

County council ward boundaries

Further to my post yesterday about proposals to split Sutton between two county council wards or ‘divisions’, it’s now been confirmed to me that East Cambridgeshire District Council broke its own rules when it made this submission to the Boundary Commission.

The plan to split Sutton was never discussed by a properly constituted meeting of the council. Instead, it was dealt with under the council’s ‘urgency’ procedures. Under these procedures, if an ‘urgent’ decision is taken, this is done by the Chief Executive of the council under delegated powers, in consultation with the Leader of the Council. The Chief Executive must then report such decisions immediately to Group Leaders (ie me, as the only other group leader) and as soon as practicable to the Full Council.

In this case, the proposal to split Sutton was submitted to the Boundary Commission on 6 July. I was not informed at all, never mind immediately. And Full Council, which met on 16 July, was not informed either. It is therefore clear that the proposal was submitted unconstitutionally, and I shall be writing to the Boundary Commission to advise them of this and ask them to disregard it.

Meanwhile, Cambridgeshire County Council meets this morning to consider its response to the county council boundary proposals. County councillors have been told that the proposal to split Sutton has been submitted by East Cambridgeshire District Council, when constitutionally this is not the case.

I have asked whether, like the county council, East Cambridgeshire had asked for an extension to the deadline so that it could have considered the boundaries publicly and democratically at its meeting on 16 July. The council has confirmed to me that it did not.

District council ward boundaries

And in a final twist, East Cambridgeshire district councillors have just received initial draft proposals from the district council for new boundaries for East Cambridgeshire district council wards. And guess what? The proposal is to split Sutton in two for that council too. Someone seems to have it in for Sutton …

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