The Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses were noted.

DECISION

1.    To note the Community Governance Review Draft Recommendations, summary consultation responses and second stage consultation information set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

2.    To note the full first stage consultation analysis in Appendix 2 to the report.

3.    To note the equality analysis set out in Appendix 3 to the report.

4.    To note the updated Terms of Reference set out in Appendix 4 to the report.

Action by:

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (W. TUCKLEY)

(Head of Democratic Services (M. Mannion)

(Senior Strategy and Policy Manager (S. Morton)

Will Tuckley, Chief Executive, introduced the report. He explained the background to the Community Governance Review, and summarised the results of the Stage 1 consultation. The consultation suggested the majority of residents did not support creation of a parish council in Spitalfields, however, the results were not considered conclusive and varied by type of submission. Additionally, he had noted that the campaigners for the parish council had amended their initial proposals, so the Council now proposed that a Stage 2 consultation broadly examine support for:

• A parish council with a number of different boundary options.
• Options to review and strengthen other community governance arrangements.

Mr Tuckley also explained that the Mayor and Cabinet were being asked to provide input to shape the Stage 2 consultation, and that other individuals and bodies would also contribute to this discussion.

Matthew Mannion, Head of Democratic Services, provided the Cabinet with a summary of discussion of this matter at the General Purposes Committee on 26 February. Discussion was thorough, but the meeting expressed no concerns with the draft Stage 2 consultation proposals.

Cabinet then heard from an organiser for the 23 July 2018 petition who raised a number of points, including:

• Concern that there is a stark difference in the results of the online and paper responses to the Stage 1 consultation. The petitioners had not realised there was an option to gather support in this way and believed overall results would have been different if they had conducted their campaign with the same methods.
• Since the initial petition, the campaigners had listened to local concerns and had adjusted their proposals to address them, including amending the proposed name to ‘Spitalfields and Banglatown’, and altering the proposed area.
• Urged the Council to reconsider the 3 boundary option consultation on the parish council area, which they felt may confuse residents, in favour of a single option which would incorporate Areas A, B and C from the map only.
• Urged the Council to consider an advisory ballot to establish support for a parish council in Spitalfields.

Councillor Andrew Wood, Leader of the Conservative Group also addressed the meeting.  Councillor Wood had found that Labour authorities elsewhere had committed to increasing parish councils and urged the Council to follow suit. He encouraged the Mayor to recognise the positive aspects of a more local form of democracy in Tower Hamlets, that would help ensure the right decisions were made at the right level. Campaigners outlined some of the ways they felt a Parish Council could materially improve the wellbeing of residents in the parish council area.

The Cabinet discussed the breakdown of the consultation responses and asked that officers continue to  take appropriate steps at Stage 2 to regularly analyse and act on response data to ensure all sections of the community were engaged in the consultation and appropriate weight was given to responses based on their connection, or otherwise, to the proposed parish council area.

The Mayor noted the Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and responses presented. He thanked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6