St Albans Community Governance Review

Gedling Borough Council is carrying out a Community Governance Review (CGR) in the Parish of St. Albans in accordance with the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. This CGR was triggered after the council received a valid petition asking for the formation of a separate Parish Council for the Bestwood Lodge and Deer Park area of the parish.

There are two consultation stages to the review. The first stage gathered opinions on whether St Albans Parish Council should be divided into separate parishes for the area; the second stage will be consideration of the Council’s recommendations on the way forward.

The Council will take full account of the views of local people, identifying any person or body who it considers may have an interest in the review, and will invite them to submit their views at both stages of the consultation.

 

What is a CGR?

The CGR is the process used to consider whether the existing parish council should be in any way modified. There are several options with regards to the outcome of the review depending on the results of the consultation. The review could recommend to Council that:

  • There should be no change to the existing arrangements; or
  • There should be changes to the electoral arrangements for the parish or an alteration to the number of seats; or
  • The existing parish council should be abolished; or
  • A Parish council should be established for one or both of the existing parish areas, and if so, the boundary, names, and the electoral arrangements for each, i.e. how many councillors on each and the election cycle; or
  • An ‘alternative style’ for one or both of the areas should be established, e.g. parish, neighbourhood, community, or village meeting.

There are two stages to the review: the first stage gathered opinions on whether St. Albans Parish Council should be divided into separate parishes for the area; the second stage will be the Council’s recommendations on the way forward which the public will be able to comment on.

Please note that the first stage of the consultation closed on 6 January 2025. Details of the second stage of the consultation are below.

Terms of reference

The terms of reference were agreed and published following full council approval at a special council meeting on 17 October. The meeting can be viewed here: Full Council - 17 October.

The terms of reference details the specifics of the review and all recommendations the petition suggested and can be found here: Terms of reference - St Albans CGR 2024

 

Timetable for the review

Action

Timescale

Terms of reference presented to Council

17 October 2024

Publish Terms of Reference

28 October 2024

Initial Consultation period

28 October 2024 – 6 January 2025

Prepare draft proposals

By 21 February 2025

Consultation on draft proposals

21 February – 2 May 2025

Deadline for submissions

2 May 2025

Prepare final proposals

2 May – 27 May 2025

Report to Council

4 June 2025

If required: Organisation of Community Governance Order

After June 2025 council meeting

 

Second stage consultation

A report has been prepared to set out recommendations on the future governance arrangements for St Albans Parish Council following consideration by the Member Working Group.

Report on the CGR of St Albans Parish Council
Appendix 1 - consultation responses
Appendix 2 - Maps showing proposed boundaries for new parishes.

This report and appendices can be read in full by clicking the above links and is summarised below:

In total the Council received 266 responses to the consultation. 262 of those were via the Microsoft Teams online form, 4 were received via email. Of those responses 96% were from residents with the rest from councillors, local political parties, the County Council, and a local fundraiser. A summary of responses was as follows:

  • 90% of responders agreed with recommendation 1 of CGR, that a new parish should be established for the Deer Park, Bestwood Lodge area of the parish.
  • 87% of responders agreed with recommendation 2 that the new parish should have the name "St Albans Parish counci".
  • 87% of responders agreed with recommendation 3 of the CGR, that the reserves be split 40/60 with 40 going to the new parish.

There were several comments put forward by those supporting and those objecting to the proposals, the comments are attached in full at Appendix 1 and were considered by the cross-party working group.

Considering the information before them, the consultation responses and the views of the community, the legislation and guidance, members decided at this stage to recommend a dissolution of the current parish of St Albans and the establishment of two new parishes.

In accordance with the recommendations of the working group, it is proposed:

  1. That a new Parish with a Parish Council is established to cover the Deer Park, Bestwood Lodge area of the St Albans Parish (as shown in appendix 2) names "The Parish Council of Deer Park". The Parish Council should have five members.
  2. That a new Parish with a Parish Council is established to cover the area comprised of the Top Valley, Emmanuel Church area of the St Albans Parish (as shown in appendix 2), named "The Parish Council of St Albans". The PArish Council should have seven members.
  3. That Elections shall be held in May 2026 for the new Parish councils, with further elections held the year after to return the parish councils to the appropriate cycle of elections for all other Gedling Parishes.
  4. The current Parish Council of St Albans should be dissolved, and the current Parish of St Albans be abolished.
  5. The new proposed parishes would not be warded.

 

How to submit your views

Comments on the review and the suggested recommendations can be submitted here using this online survey:

https://forms.office.com/e/wj8W7wwrX0

You can also email and write to the team with your comments, using the below details:

Writing to:

Community Governance Review (Elections)
Gedling Borough Council
Civic Centre
Arnot Hill Park
Arnold Nottingham
NG5 6LU

Emailing: elections@gedling.gov.uk

If you have any queries, comments or would like a copy of this survey in another format please contact us.