How the new councils will work

Peter Cheney examines the Local Government Bill, which outlines how the 11 new councils will operate from April 2015 onwards.

The Local Government Bill is currently before the Assembly and is expected to become law in early May. The council elections, on 22 May, are not dependent on the Bill but getting it onto the statute book will provide more certainty about how the councils will operate. The new councils will sit in shadow format until they assume their full powers on 1 April next year. The existing 26 councils will continue to sit during this time as they were elected for a full four-year term.

All 11 new councils will initially be established as ‘district councils’ but a new council will be able to either opt into a charter from one of the old councils, or apply to the Secretary of State to become a borough. A council may use the term ‘city’ if one falls within its boundary; this status is awarded by the Queen.

The province currently has 13 boroughs and five cities: Belfast, Derry, Lisburn, Newry and Armagh.

A councillor must be aged 18 or over and have a local connection: either as a resident or by owning land or working in the district during the previous full year. British, Irish, Commonwealth and EU citizens are eligible to stand for election.

He or she is disqualified if they are a council employee, an MP, MLA or MEP, declared bankrupt or found guilty of corrupt or illegal practices.

Retiring councillors who receive a severance payment will not be eligible to stand again.

A councillor may resign at any time and will lose their seat if they fail to attend meetings for six consecutive months – unless leave of absence has been granted.

Leadership

Positions of responsibility (e.g. chair, deputy chair and members of an executive) will be filled by one of three methods: the d’Hondt or Sainte-Laguë formulae, or a single transferrable vote election among members. The department prefers that executive seats be shared between parties but individual parties will be free to go into opposition instead.

‘Executive arrangements’ will allow the council to set up a cabinet-style executive, which is common in local government across Great Britain. It must have between four and 10 members. The chair and deputy chair of the council are not permitted to sit on the executive.

Executive meetings can be held in private but a written record of decisions must be kept, along with reasons for those decisions. The DoE hopes that executive arrangements will result in decisions being taken quickly and more efficiently but councils are still free to keep the committee system which is used at present.

Council meetings must be open to the public except when confidential information is being discussed. Meetings in public can also be attended by “duly accredited representatives of newspapers” who should be “afforded reasonable facilities for taking their report”. References to newspapers are also taken to mean news agencies and broadcasters.

Councils, though, are not obliged to allow photography or audio-visual recordings. The department’s thinking is that this coverage could interrupt the flow of debate or result in undue pressure on councillors.

Ethics

A mandatory code of conduct will also be introduced for the first time. At present, Northern Ireland councillors have a voluntary code of conduct with no way to enforce it. Their Scottish and Welsh counterparts can be disqualified from office for breaching their codes. Alleged breaches will be investigated by the Northern Ireland Ombudsman, who may order a councillor to be censured, suspended or disqualified from office.

As the Bill stands, councillors deciding on planning applications will not have to declare if their party has received money from the developer. This is in keeping with the current bar on naming party donors but Green MLA Steven Agnew has said that “this veil of secrecy regarding who pulls the financial strings of political parties does nothing to engender trust in the political process.” The Green and Alliance parties voluntarily publish details of their party donors.

A register of interests must also be maintained and published. At present, a councillor is legally obliged to declare any conflicts of interest before the council considers a matter. The councillor must then leave the chamber while any discussions take place.

The strongest sanction against corruption is the UK-wide Bribery Act 2010. It makes clear that failure to prevent bribery, giving, promising or offering a bribe, and requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting a bribe are criminal offences. The maximum penalties for bribery are 10 years’ imprisonment or an unlimited fine.

Powers

Councils must initiate and then “maintain, facilitate and participate in” community planning for their districts. This involves setting long-term objectives for local economic, social and environmental well-being in a community plan – to be reviewed every four years.

A number of external organisations will be designated as ‘community planning partners’ and will be obliged to help the council carry out its duty.

Community partners will initially be from within government (e.g. the Housing Executive) but councils will be free to select other organisations from other sectors. The council and the planning partners must also ensure that residents, business representatives and voluntary bodies are consulted.

Councils will also be granted a general power of competence i.e. “to do anything that individuals generally may do” within the law. This will provide the space to roll out innovative ideas.

Specific improvement objectives must be set for each financial year. The Local Government Auditor will have the power to carry out special inspections into a council’s performance. Any Executive department can also investigate a council and intervene to take over a particular responsibility as a last resort. The Minister will establish a ‘partnership panel’ which will comprise Executive ministers and members of councils. This model was first proposed by Dawn Purvis, during her time as an MLA, and is based on the Partnership Council for Wales.

Balance

Based on the 2011 Census, six of the new councils will have majorities from a Protestant community background: Antrim and Newtownabbey; Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon; Causeway Coast and Glens; Lisburn and Castlereagh; Mid and East Antrim; and North Down and Ards.

Four will have Catholic majorities: Derry and Strabane; Fermanagh and Omagh; Mid Ulster; and Newry, Mourne and Down.

No community has an overall majority in Belfast. The city’s balance was 49 per cent Catholic, 43 per cent Protestant and 8 per cent other and none.

The power to decide the names and sizes of district electoral areas was transferred to Westminster in 1972 after the Cameron Commission’s inquiry into discrimination. The NIO plans to devolve that power later this year but it will still regulate all elections, as well as the finances and conduct of political parties.

The councillors elected this year will hold office until the next election in the spring of 2019. As the outgoing councils have been in place for just over 40 years, it’s reasonable to assume that their replacements will exist until at least 2050 unless there is a compelling case for further reform in the meantime.

Key council responsibilities

Existing

· Building control

· Burial grounds

· Community relations

· Environmental health

· Leisure and recreation

· Local arts promotion

· Parks and green spaces

· Waste and recycling

New from April 2015

· Development control

· Historic buildings

· Housing unfitness

· Local development plans

· Local economic development

· Local tourism development

· Off-street parking

· Urban regeneration