Terms of Reference

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Review of Community Governance Arrangements under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007

Terms of Reference

Introduction

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Council’) has resolved to undertake a Community Governance Review (CGR) in accordance with Part 4, Chapter 3 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the 2007 Act’).

This CGR will consider the governance arrangements of the six unparished urban areas within the Tunbridge Wells local authority area (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Review Area’). Those areas are the Borough Council wards of:

• Culverden
• Pantiles
• Park
• Sherwood
• St James'
• St John's

An online interactive map showing the Review Area is available via the link below:

www.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/cgr-map

When undertaking this CGR and in the creation of these Terms of Reference, the Council is required to have regard to the guidance on CGRs issued by the Secretary of State and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) (opens in a new window).

What is a CGR?

A CGR offers the opportunity to put in place strong, clearly defined boundaries, tied to firm ground features and to remove any anomalous parish boundaries. It can take place for the whole or part of the Borough to consider one or more of the following:

• creating, merging, altering, or abolishing parishes;
• the naming of parishes and the style of new parishes;
• the electoral arrangements for parishes (the ordinary year of election; council size, the number of councillors to be elected to the council, and parish warding); and
• grouping parishes under a common parish council or de-grouping parishes.

The Council is required to ensure that community governance within the area under review will be reflective of the identities and interests of the community in that area; and is effective and convenient.

In doing so, a CGR is required to consider:

• the impact of community governance arrangements on community cohesion; and
• the size, population and boundaries of a local community or parish.

The aim of a CGR is to bring about improved community engagement, better local democracy and efficient, more effective and convenient delivery of local services and ensure electors across the whole Borough will be treated equitably and fairly.

Why undertake this CGR?

Informal enquiries have been made by local councillors, individuals and local groups, indicating a desire to register a statutory petition to commence a CGR of the Review Area. The receipt of a formal petition would place an obligation on the Council to undertake a review of the area that the petition relates to.

Government guidance states that it is good practice to conduct a full review of areas at least every 10 to 15 years and to keep areas under review in the interim.

Given that a review of the Review Area has not been undertaken within the past 10 to 15 years, and in response to the informal enquiries received following the publication of the Government’s English Devolution White Paper in December 2024 (opens in a new window), the Council has taken the decision to undertake this CGR without waiting for a formal petition or application to be received.

Who will undertake this CGR?

As the Principal Authority, the Council is statutorily responsible for conducting this CGR. The Council has established a cross-party working group that will be responsible for making Draft and Final Recommendations during the CGR process.

In developing its Draft and Final Recommendations, the working group will follow the guiding principles set out at page 5 onwards of these Terms of Reference.

In coming to its Final Recommendations, the working group must take account of the views of local people. A full consultation process will form part of the CGR to ensure those views are captured. The 2007 Act requires the Council to consult the local government electors for the Review Area and any other person or body who has an interest in the CGR.

The Council will publicise the CGR by:

• displaying a notice at the Town Hall in Royal Tunbridge Wells;
• holding in-person public engagement events within the Review Area;
• placing articles on the Council’s CGR webpages;
• via the Council’s social media channels (Facebook, X, Instagram and Nextdoor); and
• providing information within the Council’s weekly email newsletters to residents, councillors and parish councils.

The Council will be required to approve the Final Recommendations before the Community Governance Reorganisation Order is made.

Scope

This CGR aims to consider and bring about improved community engagement, better local democracy and efficient, more effective and convenient delivery of local services for the Review Area.

This CGR will consider whether it is appropriate to parish the six unparished urban areas within the Review Area and, if it is deemed appropriate, whether a new parish or town council(s) should be created.

If it is deemed appropriate to parish the six unparished urban areas within the Review Area, the Council will ensure that the Final Recommendations for the new governance arrangements are:

• reflective of the identities and interests of the community in that area; and
• effective and convenient to the community in that area.

In developing Draft and Final Recommendations for the new governance arrangements, the Council is required to consider:

• the impact of community governance arrangements on community cohesion; and
• the size, population and boundaries of the local community or parish.

If it is deemed appropriate to parish the six unparished urban areas within the Review Area and to create new parishes and/or town council(s), the Council will determine which (if any) assets it would be appropriate to transfer (either owned or leased) from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council to the newly formed parishes and/or town council(s). This will include the net cost or net income and longer-term liabilities that would result from such ownership or lease.

This CGR will not consider the governance arrangements for any of the existing sixteen parish and town council areas within the Tunbridge Wells local authority area.

Timetable

When a CGR is initiated by the Council, as this one has been, it is seen as best practice for the review to be concluded within twelve months from the date of publication of the Terms of Reference. A CGR concludes when the Council publishes its Final Recommendations.

The timetable for this review is set out below.

Contact us

If you would like to say how you view potential future arrangements under these Terms of Reference, please submit your written comments to:

William Benson
Chief Executive
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Mount Pleasant Road
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN1 1RS

Alternatively, your submission can be emailed to cgr@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

Should you require any further information or need clarification on the Community Governance Review process, please contact:

Andy Sturtivant
Head of Governance and Democratic Services
Email: cgr@tunbridgewells.gov.uk
Phone: 01892 554024 (Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm)

Guiding principles

Relevant legislation

In undertaking this Community Governance Review, the Council will apply the guiding principles as appropriate from the following legislation and guidance:

• Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (opens in a new window)
• Local Government Act 1972 (opens in a new window)
• MHCLG Guidance on Community Governance Reviews (opens in a new window)
• Local Government (Parishes and Parish Councils) (England) Regulations 2008 (SI2008/625) (opens in a new window)
• Local Government Finance (New Parishes) Regulations 2008 (SI2008/626) (opens in a new window)

Electorate forecasts

The Council will use the January 2025 Register of Electors to provide the electorate figures for the Review Area.

In considering the electoral arrangements of the Review Area, the Council is required to consider any change in the number or distribution of the electors which is likely to occur within five years, beginning with the day when the review starts.

The five-year electorate forecast will be prepared for the period to 2030 by using extant planning permissions and the Local Plan/Local Development Framework. The forecast figures will be included in the Draft and Final Recommendations.

Consultation

Before making or publishing its Final Recommendations, in line with legislative requirements, the Council will take full account of the views of local people. The Council will comply with legislative requirements by:

• consulting local government electors for the Review Area;
• consulting any other person or body which appears to the Council to have an interest in the Community Governance Review (CGR);
• consulting Kent County Council; and
• considering any representations received in connection with the review.

When taking account of written representations, the Council is bound to have regard to the need to secure that community governance within the Review Area is:

• reflective of the identities and interests of the community in that area; and
• effective and convenient to the community in that area.

To ensure this CGR is conducted transparently, as soon as practicable the Council will publish its Draft Recommendations and take such steps as it considers sufficient to ensure that persons who may be interested in the review are informed of them and the reasons behind them.

The Council will also notify each consultee and any other persons or bodies who have made written representations of the outcome of the review.

The value of local councils

The Council believes that local parish and town councils play a key role in terms of community empowerment at a local level and want to ensure that local governance in the Review Area is robust, representative and enabled to meet the challenges that lie before it.

The Tunbridge Wells Agreement sets out a series of principles which characterise and underpin working relationships between the Council and parish and town councils.

The Tunbridge Wells Agreement recognises that parish and town councils have a key role to play in representing the views and promoting the needs of the Borough’s local communities and neighbourhoods, and that every opportunity should be afforded to them to express such views to the Council before any decisions are taken that might affect local circumstances.

Parish boundaries

The Council considers that ‘natural’ settlements or settlements as they are defined in the Local Development Framework should not in normal circumstances be partitioned by parish boundaries.

The Council considers that the boundaries between parishes should, where possible, either reflect the ‘no-man’s land’ between communities represented by areas of low population or by pronounced physical barriers. Pronounced physical barriers might include natural boundaries such as rivers or man-made features such as railways or roads.

The Council will endeavour to select boundaries that are and are likely to remain easily identifiable, as well as consider any local ties which might be broken by the fixing of any particular boundaries.

The Electoral Commission has suggested that a consideration for the Council when undertaking a Community Governance Review is that the Borough wards and County electoral divisions should not split an unwarded parish and that no parish ward should be split by such a boundary.

The naming of parishes

The Council will endeavour to reflect existing local or historic place names when naming new parishes. The Council will favour names proposed by local interested parties.

The Council considers composite names of parishes are rarely in the interest of effective and convenient local government. The Council would wish to avoid composite names other than in exceptional circumstances where the demands of history, local connections or the preservation of local ties make a pressing case for the retention of distinctive traditional names.

Electoral arrangements

An important part of this Community Governance Review will include considering electoral arrangements. The term ‘electoral arrangements’ covers how a council is constituted for the parish. The term covers:

• the ordinary year in which elections are held;
• the number of councillors to be elected to the council;
• the division (or not) of the parish into wards to elect councillors;
• the number of boundaries of any such wards;
• the number of councillors to be elected for any such ward; and
• the name of any such ward.

Parish council election dates

The Council currently elects ‘by thirds’, with elections taking place in three out of every four years. In line with these arrangements, scheduled parish council elections also take place in three out of every four years. It would therefore seem sensible for scheduled elections for any new parish or town council(s) to be aligned with the Council’s election dates. This can save considerable money for parish and town councils, who will then all share their election dates, and makes the democratic process easier and more accessible for electors.

Number of parish councillors

The Council notes that legally the number of parish councillors for each parish council shall not be less than five and that there is no maximum number. In the instance of parish wards, any warded parish must have at least one parish councillor per ward. Furthermore, each area should be considered on its own merits, having regard to its population, geography, and the pattern of communities.

It is an important democratic principle that each person’s vote should be of equal weight so far as possible, having regard to other legitimate competing factors, when it comes to the election of councillors.

Whilst it will not be possible, nor desirable, to create absolute uniformity in councillor representation at a parish level, the Council will provide equality of representation across the Borough as far as possible.

Whilst the Council is keen to ensure that the allocation of councillors to parish councils is equitable across the Borough using National Association of Local Councils (NALC) guidelines, it acknowledges that local circumstances may occasionally merit variation. Therefore, in exceptional circumstances, or in the case of parish warding, the Council accepts that it may be appropriate to increase or decrease the allocation of councillors to a parish council to reflect local circumstances.

Whilst the Council has discretion in this matter and will be mindful to apply the NALC guidelines, it will, wherever possible, fully consider the wishes of the local area and any existing levels of representation that have stood the test of time before arriving at a decision.

Parish warding

The 2007 Act requires that in considering whether a parish should be divided into wards for the purpose of elections of the parish council, the Council should consider:

• whether the number, or distribution, of the local government electors for the parish would make a single election of councillors impracticable or inconvenient; and
• whether it is desirable that any area or areas of the parish should be separately represented on the parish council.

The Council will be mindful of government guidance on parish warding, noting that ‘each case should be considered on its merits and on the basis of information and evidence provided during the course of the review.’

The Council will also be mindful of government suggestions regarding urban parishes, noting ‘there is likely to be a stronger case for the warding of urban parishes… In urban areas community identity tends to focus on locality, whether this be a housing estate, a shopping centre or community facilities. Each locality is likely to have its own sense of identity.’

The number and boundaries of parish wards

In reaching conclusions on the boundaries between parish wards, the Council will consider community identity and interests in an area and will consider whether any ties or linkages might be broken by the drawing of ward boundaries. Equally, the Council, during its consultations is mindful that recommendations that are intended to reflect community identity and local linkages should be justified in terms of sound and demonstrable evidence of those identities and linkages.

The Council has noted the desirability of fixing boundaries which are, and will remain, easily identifiable, as well as considering any local ties that might be broken by the fixing of any boundaries.

The number of councillors to be elected for parish wards

The Council has noted it is required to have regard to the following when considering the size and boundaries of the wards and the number of councillors to be elected for each parish ward:

• the number of local government electors for the parish; and
• any change in the number, or distribution, of the local government electors which is likely to occur within five years beginning with the day when the review starts.

The government has advised, and this Council concurs ‘it is an important democratic principle that each person’s vote should be of equal weight so far as possible, having regard to other legitimated competing factors, when it comes to the elections of councillors.’

While there is no provision in the legislation that each parish councillor should represent, as near as the same number of electors, the Council considers it is not in the interests of effective and convenient local government, either for voters or councillors, to have significant differences in levels of representation between different parish wards.

The Council is likewise anxious to avoid the risk of one or more wards of a parish being over-represented by councillors. The residents of those wards (and their councillors) could be perceived as having more influence than others on the parish/town council. During the CGR process and its consultation, the Council is committed to consistently showing the ratios of electors to councillors that would result from its recommendations.

Naming of parish wards

The Council will endeavour to reflect existing local or historic place names and will give a strong presumption in favour of ward names proposed by local interested parties.

Consequential matters

The Council notes that a Community Governance Reorganisation Order will cover any consequential matters that appear to the Council to be necessary or proper to give effect to the Order. These will include:

• the transfer and management or custody of property;
• the setting of precepts (Council Tax levy) for the new parish(es); and
• provision concerning the transfer of any functions, property, rights and liabilities.

The Council will consider the requirements of the Local Government Finance (New Parishes) Regulations 2008 when calculating the budget requirement of any new parish councils when setting the Council Tax levy to be charged.

Publication of Terms of Reference

These Terms of Reference will be published on the Council’s website and will be available for public inspection at the Town Hall in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Date of publication: 2 June 2025