Meeting documents

To receive presentation

The Committee received a PowerPoint presentation concerning the consultation regarding the Community Governance Review on the Unparished Area of Taunton.

The Council’s Monitoring Officer, Scott Wooldridge introduced the item and invited Cllr Derek Perry, Deputy Leader Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) and Chair of the working group to address the Committee. Marcus Prouse, Specialist Governance and Project Lead and Amy Tregellas, Governance Manager and Monitoring Officer from SWT, provided further context and information on the SWT community governance review with the creation of a Town Council for Taunton from 1 April 2023 and in particular the Stage 2 consultation proposals (the consultation period was from 14 June to 26 July 2022).

The following points were highlighted in the presentation: -

• The community governance review was the mechanism to create a new Council.
• The Stage 2 Consultation document had been sent to 44,000 residents and businesses encouraging people to gives views on the boundary proposal, what services the town / parish council could provide and the average costs (precept).
• The proposal for the electoral arrangements was for the new Taunton Council to be a Council of 20 councillors on 11 wards with the first elections being held on 4 May 2023, if created.
• The number of matters which needed to be established by vesting day e.g. premises, allotments for example.
• the community infrastructure levy (CIL) and the transfer of property, rights and liabilities and also the neighbourhood plan.
• The timeline in the lead up to the Council meeting at SWT on 6 September 2022 and the special SCC meeting of Full Council in early October 2022 and key dates beyond this.

Members of the Committee asked a number of detailed questions and made a number of comments which were responded to at the meeting: -

• It would be helpful to have a key for the map of the area, especially for those who live outside the area.
• The review was a detailed piece of work and would like to commend those involved in the consultation.
• Neighbourhood plans and impact of the consultation – clarified that the CIL and neighbourhood planning followed two separate processes. Where a council was abolished or subject to an alteration in its area consisting of the loss of a transferred area, then all property rights and liabilities which related to the transferred area would be given to the transferee authority to which the transferred area transfers. i.e. any unspent CIL receipts relating to development located in that part of a Parish Council’s area that was being transferred to a Taunton Town Council (TTC) should be paid over to TTC on the date of transfer 1 April 2023. Neighbourhood Plan policies would remain in place and be enforced for the area of land that they covered even if that land became part of a different Parish.
• Question on precept comparative data and implications as some families would pay more Council Tax as they were currently in an unparished area.  For example, if the parish area they were currently in changed – they outlined that the level of services provided varied significantly between town or parish councils, so did the level of the precept. They would look at transitional relief question; the precept figure was still to be determined and depended on the range of services to be delivered by the new organisation. Likely the new Council would have a 2 stage implementation with a smaller organisation at the start covering the ‘basics’ (model standing orders); the annual meeting in May 2023 would develop the Corporate Strategy to help shape the new councils future plans.
• Question as to whether the Parish precept could be capped – no indication this would happen at the moment.
• Query as to whether the Order could or would be modified - clarified that modifications were made following the Stage 1 consultation and there remained scope for modifications to be made at the end of Stage 2 consultation as well.
• Questions on the number of people attending the consultation events and also awareness about the consultation – explained that there had been variations in attendance, for example the event at Trull had 20 + attending.

The Committee NOTED the update and the opportunities to contribute and participate in the consultation.