Agenda item

A report of the Director of Transformation is attached.

The Terms of Reference document had been published on 7 April 2011. Following the closure of the preliminary stage of the review, the next stage would be to draw up specific recommendations on the future community governance arrangements taking into account the consultation responses.

A significant number of written representations had been received and all were attached to the report in full. A covering schedule was included and Members were urged to read each response in detail to help inform the draft recommendations stage. There did appear to be a key aspiration from the consultation, for Buckshaw Village to be under one rather than two local authority areas

The Council had made a request for a Boundary Review some years ago and at the start of the Review there had been no indication by the Local Government Boundary Committee for England as to when this might take place. It was explained that since the closure of the consultation, the Council had received correspondence indicating that if both Chorley and South Ribble Councils were in agreement to a review of the boundary between the two Councils in the Buckshaw area, then they would be willing to look at this.

The Chair reported that the two Councils were due to meet later that week to consider the potential for a Boundary Review for Buckshaw. It had already been stated in the Terms of Reference that a change in the boundary would have a major impact on this review, so it was proposed to suspend the work of this Committee until a way forward had been agreed on the boundary review. It was anticipated that a decision would be made at the next full Councils of two authorities in July.

RESOLVED – That the Community Governance Review of Buckshaw Village be suspended until an agreement is reached by Chorley and South Ribble Councils on the potential for a Boundary Review.