Agenda item

Report and addendum attached.

Members considered a report of Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP, together with an addendum circulated at the meeting, which set out the outcome of a review of the allocation of seats to political groups and which sought to approve to a number of amendments to committee sizes and consequential and other proposed changes to the appointment of individual councillors to serve on those committees and their designated chairs or vice-chairs

 

Review of Allocation of Seats

 

In accordance with The Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, the Council was required to review the allocation of seats to political groups under s.15 Local Government and Housing Act 1989, in certain prescribed circumstances.  This included following the service of a notice to the proper officer under Regulation 8 by members wishing to form a political group on the Council, provided that at least one month had elapsed since the previous review.  The previous review had been undertaken on 7^th May 2025 ahead of the Annual Council Meeting on 15^th May 2025.

 

A notice had now been submitted under Regulation 8, which included the addition of Councillor Joyce Plummer to the Conservative Group, which was a change from the information previously notified to the proper officer.   This had automatically triggered a review of the allocation of seats.

 

The review had resulted in minor adjustments being proposed to the size of committees to maintain to the overall political balance across the Council and consequential amendments to the seats available on some committees and the individual councillors appointed to serve on the various committees affected.

 

Allocation of Seats

 

The number of seats currently held on the Council by each political group and others was:-

 

Labour and Co-operative Group	21
Conservative Group	13
Green	1

 

The Council comprised 35 elected members.

 

The total seats available across the Council should now, in so far as is practicable, be divided between the political parties in the following ratio: 61.8% (Labour and Co-operative) 38.2% (Conservative).  The same ratio should be applied, in so far as is practicable, to the allocation of seats on each individual committee/sub-committee.  Members were reminded that at the Council’s Annual Meeting on 15^th May 2025, it had been agreed to gift a small number of seats to the Green and Independent members on the larger committees, as this would not materially affect the overall political balance.  It was not proposed to alter this arrangement, other than to note the removal of the Independent seat, which was now surplus to requirements.  Accordingly, the proposal to gift a seat would now apply only to the Green councillor.

 

The basic calculation to allocate seats to committees of various sizes had altered slightly from that indicated at the Annual Meeting and the new position was as shown in Table 1 below.  The changes applied to committees of the following sizes: 7, 10, 12, 13 and 15 (shaded grey in Table 1).  At the Annual Council meeting, members noted that, some adjustment to the ratios shown might be required in the final allocation of seats across the Council to take into account the following principles as required by the legislation and in the light of the practice referred to at paragraph 4.2 in the report about gifting a seat to the Green councillor.

 

(a)     Not all seats to go to the same group;

(b)     If a Group had a majority on the Council, it should receive a majority of seats on each committee;

(c)     Total number of seats across all bodies must be proportionate (subject to (a) and (b));

(d)     Seats on each body must be proportionate (subject to (a) to (c)).

 

Accordingly, Table 1 below set out the allocation of seats proposed for the remainder of 2025/26 (see column 5)

 

Table 1

 

No of seats on Committee (1)	Lab   (2)	Cons   (3)	Green   (4)	Proposed Ratio (5)
2 members	1	1	0	1:1:0
3 members	2	1	0	2:1:0
4 members	3	1	0	3:1:0
5 members	3	2	0	3:2:0
6 members	4	2	0	4:2:0
7 members	4	3	0	4:3:0
8 members	5	3	0	5:3:0
9 members	6	3	0	6:3:0
10 members	6	4	0	6:4:0
11 members	7	4	0	7:4:0
12 members	7	5	0	7:5:0
13 members	8	5	0	8:5:0
14 members	9	5	0	8:5:1*
15 members	9	6	0	9:6:0

 

*           NB. Adjusted to provide for 1 Green seat

 

 

Following the review, there were two amendments proposed to the size of committees/sub-committees since the Annual Meeting in 2025, in respect of the following Committees:

 

• Planning Committee (increase from 12 to 13 seats, providing two additional Conservative seats).
• Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee (increase from 7 to 8 seats, providing an additional Conservative seat)

 

The proposals would increase the total number of available seats across all committees and sub-committees from 87 to 89 (which took account of the loss of one independent seat and the addition of three Conservative seats on the two committees mentioned above).

 

The full list of committees and sub-committees, including details of the overall sizes and allocation of seats between political parties for the remainder of 2025/26 are set out in Table 2 below.  As indicated above, the changes proposed (highlighted in bold italics in Table 2) apply to the following Committees:

 

• Planning Committee;
• Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

 

Table 2

 

Committee	Total No. of Seats	No. of seats by political group   (Labour & Co-operative : Conservative : Green)
Audit Committee	6	4:2:0
Communities & Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee	8	5:3:0
Judicial Committee (Private Hire & Hackney Carriage Licensing)	6	4:2:0
Licensing Committee	14	8:5:1
Licensing Sub-Committee	3	3 from Licensing Committee, one of whom must be the Chair or Vice-Chair of the Licensing Committee (2:1:0 where practicable)
Management Review Committee	5	3:2:0:0 Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, plus an additional member of the Cabinet, and Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Group
Planning Committee	13 (proposed increase from 12 to 13)	8:5:0 (A change from 8:3:0:1* *    Independent seat no longer required)
Planning (Trees) Sub-Committee	5	3:2:0   (drawn from the parent committee above)
Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee	8 (proposed increase from 7 to 8)	5:3:0 (A change from 5:2:0)
Special Overview & Scrutiny Committee	8	5:3:0
Standards Committee	8	5:3:0
Standards Committee – Hearing Sub-Committee	5	For matters relating to Hyndburn Borough Council: 5 members plus 1 non-voting independent person For matters relating to Altham Parish Council: 5 members, plus 1 independent person and 1 parish representative (3:2:0) where practicable)
Total	89	55 – Lab & Co-op (61.8%) 33 – Cons (37.1%) 1 – Green (1.1%)

 

 

Changes to Appointments to Committees/Sub-Committees

 

The Council had duty to give effect to the wishes of a political group in relation to appointments to committees and other bodies in accordance with s16(1) Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

 

In addition to the consequential changes to individual committees necessitated by the review of political balance, political parties had indicated their intention to make a number of changes to individual appointments to the committees/sub-committees, including chairs/vice-chairs, since the Annual Council meeting.  The intention was to deal with these changes within the same item of business.

 

The proposed membership of Committees/Sub-Committees was tabled at the meeting, as Appendix 1.  At the meeting, Councillor Dad also notified members of an alteration to the information circulated in Appendix 1, to provide for the retention of Councillor Booth as a member of the Planning Committee and as Chair of the Planning (Trees) Sub-Committee and the removal of Councillor Noordad Aziz from the Planning Committee.

 

In the event that further changes were not yet finalised, a delegated authority to the Chief Executive to make the appointments in consultation with the relevant political group leaders was recommended.

 

The Council was invited to consider and give effect to requests from the various political groups, as follows:

 

Labour and Co-operative

 

• A change to the membership of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee comprising the removal of the Vice-Chair, Councillor Paul Cox, and the appointment of Councillor Jodi Clements as Vice-Chair

 

• A change to the membership of the Planning Committee comprising the removal of Councillor Noordad Aziz, the current Vice-Chair Councillor Mike Booth reverting to an ordinary member of that committee and the appointment of Councillor Bernard Dawson as Vice-Chair.

 

• A change to the membership of the Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee comprising the current Vice-Chair Councillor Heather Anderson reverting to an ordinary member of that committee, the removal of Councillor Bernard Dawson and the appointment of Councillor Paul Cox as Vice-Chair

 

• A change to the Special Overview and Scrutiny Committee comprising the removal of Vice-Chair, Councillor Bernard Dawson, and the appointment of Councillor Mike Booth as Vice-Chair

 

Conservative

 

• A change to the membership of Planning Committee comprising the appointment of Councillor Joyce Plummer (transferring from the defunct Independent seat) and Councillor Josh Allen to the additional two Conservative seats on this committee.

 

• A change to the membership of the Planning (Trees) Sub-Committee comprising a correction to remove Councillor Peter Edwards (not a member of the Planning Committee) and the appointment Councillor Joyce Plummer.

 

• A change to the membership of the Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee comprising the appointment of Councillor Steven Smithson to the additional Conservative seat on this committee.

 

Resolved                                 (1)   To note the outcome of a review of the allocation of seats to political groups.

 

(2)   To approve the political composition of committees and sub-committees of the Council, as set out in Paragraph 4.6 of the report (as updated by the Addendum document), and the amendments proposed to committee sizes (also updated by the Addendum), including any consequential changes to Appendix 1 of Part 3 (Responsibility for Functions) of the Council’s Constitution.

 

(3)   To approve the changes to the membership of any committees, sub-committees, and any office holders as submitted both before and at the Council meeting by the political group leaders (as set out above), and to agree that where any such details are not available at the meeting or where consequential and minor changes are proposed within a period of one month following the meeting, the Chief Executive be authorised to approve the updated membership following receipt in writing of the wishes of the relevant group leader.