Further to Minute 20 of the meeting held on 15 July 2019, the Returning Officer submitted a report on an electoral review of the Council being undertaken by The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) in its 2019-20 programme.

The report noted that the Council’s submission to the LGBCE on Council Size, as agreed by the Committee on 15 July 2019, was for a Council of 48 Councillors, representing 16 wards of comparable size with three Councillors per ward. The LGBCE were now running a consultation until 4 November 2019 inviting proposals for warding patterns, and it was recommended that an advisory cross-party Ward Boundary Review Working Group be established to assist the development of the Council’s response to the consultation.

The report set out proposed terms of reference for the Group and invited the political groups to nominate members based on the following proportionality: 6 Labour; 3 Conservative; 1 Liberal Democrat; and 1 Green.

Resolved –

(1)     That a Ward Boundary Review Working Group be established with Terms of Reference as follows:

                   To consider the Local Government Boundary Commission Review of Reading’s Ward Boundaries 2019-20 and make observations and recommendations to the Council or Policy Committee on warding patterns for approval and submission to the Commission during the public consultation periods.

(2)     That the Group Leaders submit their nominations for membership of the Working Group to the Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services;

(3)     That Councillor Brock be appointed as the Chair and Councillor Page be appointed as the Vice-Chair of the Working Group;

(4)     That the first meeting of the Working Group be held on Wednesday 2 October 2019 at 7.00pm.