MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETING

16 MAY 2012

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF DEMOCRATIC SERVICES

Report Prepared by Neil Harris

1.        ALLOCATION OF SEATS ON COMMITTEES

1.1           Notification has been received of a change in the size of the Political Groups on the Council.  This therefore necessitates a review of the allocation of seats on Committees.

1.1.1      The Constitution of the Council is now as follows:

Conservative                  30
Liberal Democrat            19
Independent                    5

Labour                              1             

                                                 55

1.1.2      The allocation on individual Committees is set out in Appendix A, whilst Appendix B demonstrates the political balance on the various Committee sizes.  You will see that on a Committee of 10 it is not possible to apportion all the seats as the vacant seat can go to either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat Groups.  A solution to this difficulty is to increase the membership of these Committees from 10 Members to 11 Members (this affects the Licensing Committee and Licensing Act 2003 Committee only).  Appendix C reflects this change.

1.1.3      The allocation of seats to the Standard Committee has not been included in Appendix A because it does not need to reflect the political balance of the Authority.  However, the Committee does have 6 Borough Council representatives and the political balance for 6 is 3 Conservatives, 2 Liberal Democrats and 1 Independent. Last year the representation was 3 Conservatives, 2 Liberal Democrats and 1 Independent.

1.1.4      The Planning Referrals Committee is not politically balanced and reflects the membership as set out in the Constitution of 3 Members, with 1 from each political group with a political group defined as consisting of 2 or more Members.  Section 17 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 provides for exceptions to the Political balance requirements.  In essence the Council can amend the political balance of a Committee provided that notice of the intention to give such consideration has been given to all Members of the Committee and when the alternative arrangements are put to the vote at the Council, no members of the Council votes against them.

1.2          RECOMMENDED

1.2.1   That the calculation for entitlement on individual Committees and the requisite adjustments as set out in Appendix C be determined.

1.2.2   That the Council determines the number of seats to be allocated to each Political Group on the Standards Committee.