At its meeting on 30 November, 2016, the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee referred the Scrutiny Review, ‘Number of Councillors’ to the Cabinet. A covering report, the Scrutiny Review and Minute are attached.

At its meeting on 30 November 2016 the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee had referred the Scrutiny Review, ‘Number of Councillors’ to the Cabinet. The review had been undertaken in response to a Notice of Motion presented to the Council in October 2014.

Councillor Steve Foulkes, a Member of the Scrutiny Panel who had carried out the review attended the Cabinet meeting and introduced the report, completed in November 2016 which set out the Panel’s findings. He informed that the Chair of the Panel, Councillor Phil Brightmore had been unable to attend the Cabinet meeting because of his work commitments.

Councillor Foulkes informed that the Panel had considered the role of the local councillor in Wirral, the role of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England and the available data comparing the number of Councillors in Wirral with other local authorities in England. Panel Members had wanted to reach an informed view on whether or not the Council should actively progress a referral to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England to conduct an Electoral Review.  The Cabinet was noted that the work carried out was aligned with the Wirral Plan Pledge – Community Services are Joined up and Accessible.

Councillor Foulkes reported that the Panel, having reviewed the Commission’s remit, processes and timescales for Further Electoral Review, had accepted that the only mechanism to change the number of councillors in Wirral would be via such a review. The Panel had concluded that it would take a significant amount of resources to prepare for and undergo a review and the Commission timescales demonstrated that this would be a lengthy process, with a less than certain outcome. Any potential savings were unlikely be realised for up to two years.

Councillor Foulkes informed that the Panel had been encouraged by evidence which demonstrated that the Council compared favourably against other councils in respect of electoral equality, as a recognised measure of council size. Of particular note was the ward level data on electoral variation which showed that Wirral was within the Commission’s parameters on electoral equality across its wards and, therefore, would not trigger the threshold for a Further Electoral Review.

The Panel had been further reassured that the cost of councillors in Wirral was lower than many of its neighbouring and similar sized national authorities, as evidenced by comparisons of Members’ Allowance Schemes and acknowledged by the recent meeting of the Independent Panel on Members’ Allowances. The Panel had noted the potential annual saving which a reduction in councillors could deliver, although the Panel believed that any cost saving identified would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83