Appendix 13 – Draft Recommendations for Constable Burton and Finghall
Contents
1.0 Current governance arrangements and history of the area
Current governance arrangements
2.0 Assessment of consultation responses for Constable Burton and Finghall
3.0 Final assessment and draft recommendations
Annex 13A – Consultation survey
Annex 13B – Summary of consultation responses
1.0 Current governance arrangements and history of the area
Current governance arrangements
1.1 Constable Burton and Finghall Parish Council is situated within the Scotton & Lower Wensleydale division and is part of the Richmond and Northallerton parliamentary constituency.
1.2 Constable Burton and Finghall Parish Council is formed by a group of civil parishes as follows:
|
Civil Parishes within Parish Council |
Electors (2025) |
Councillors |
|
Constable Burton civil parish |
139 |
2 |
|
East Hauxwell civil parish |
35 |
1 |
|
West Hauxwell civil parish |
7 |
|
|
Hutton Hang civil parish |
18 |
2 |
|
Finghall civil parish |
149 |
|
|
Akebar civil parish |
15 |
|
|
Garriston civil parish |
27 |
1 |
|
Barden civil parish |
29 |
|
|
TOTALS |
419 |
6 |
History of the area
1.3 Under the Local Government Act, each parish within a group of parishes forming a parish council must return at least one councillor, and the same person cannot be elected to more than one seat in a parish council.
1.4 It has been identified that Constable Burton and Finghall Parish Council does not currently meet the above requirements as:
· East Hauxwell and West Hauxwell collectively return a single councillor,
· Hutton Hang, Finghall, and Akebar collectively return 2 councillors
· Garriston and Barden collectively return a single councillor
1.5 The legal order putting in place the current arrangements for the parish council is decades old and has not been located and therefore it was agreed that a review of the governance arrangements was needed to ensure the governance arrangements were fit for purpose and compliant in future.
1.6 Prior to the review commencing, contact was made with the parish council and the relevant division member. The identified issue and potential solutions were explored. The parish council provided a preferred solution, which formed the basis of the first stage of consultation for this review.
1.7 The preferred potential solution involved merging some of the existing parishes within the group, to form new parish areas deemed appropriate for the area, with adjustments to the councillor numbers, as follows:
|
Proposed Civil Parishes within Parish Council |
Electorate |
Councillors |
|
Constable Burton civil parish |
139 |
2 |
|
New civil parish area (taking in East Hauxwell civil parish, West Hauxwell civil parish, Barden civil parish, and Garriston civil parish) |
98 |
2 |
|
New civil parish area (taking in Finghall civil parish, Akebar civil parish and Hutton Hang civil parish) |
182 |
2 |
|
TOTALS |
419 |
6 |
1.8 The proposal takes existing civil parishes and their locality into consideration, maintains a level of community identity within the group, and maintains the existing council size of 6 though adjusts the councillor representation across the council and satisfies the requirement that each parish within a group of parishes forming council is represented by at least one councillor:
· Constable Burton civil parish remains unchanged, to retain 2 councillors.
· 4 civil parishes would merge (East Hauxwell, West Hauxwell, Barden, and Garriston) to form a new single civil parish, represented by 2 councillors
· 3 civil parishes would merge (Finghall, Akebar, and Hutton Hang) to form a new single civil parish, represented by 2 councillors
· the total council size would remain at 6
Five year electorate forecast
1.9 The 2030 electorate forecast for all parishes in the group is expected to be 442 (calculated using 2024 electorate) from 419, which is not a large increase, as the area is very rural.
2.0 Assessment of consultation responses for Constable Burton and Finghall
2.1 The following table shows the number of households written to, with the number of consultation responses received, and response rate.
|
Households sent CGR consultation letter |
248 |
|
Consultation responses received |
12 |
|
Response rate |
4.8 % |
2.2 Consultation letters were sent to all households within the Constable Burton and Finghall parish council area, being those directly affected by this review.
2.3 A copy of the consultation survey can be found at Annex 13A. A summary of consultation responses received can be found at Annex 13B.
2.4 The response rate in the table above was calculated by comparing the number of consultation responses with the number of households directly consulted by means of a letter sent to all properties in the areas under review.
2.5 Of the 12 respondents, 11 (91.7%) reported that they are residents of the parish council area, and one was a response from the Parish Council.
2.6 Most respondents were in favour of the proposed solution:
|
Option |
Number |
Percentage |
|
I support the potential solution |
10 |
83.3 % |
|
I do not support the potential solution |
2 |
16.7 % |
|
Total |
12 |
100 % |
2.7 Reasons given in support all include reference to the proposal being a ‘sensible’ solution to the identified problem in respect of the current arrangements.
2.8 Reasons given against the proposal were relating to not wanting any changes to the parish or council arrangements, appearing not to recognise the legal requirement that a single councillor cannot represent more than 1 parish area. This is not a viable option. Alternative potential arrangements were not provided.
3.0 Final assessment and draft recommendations
3.1 The majority of responses (83.3 %) indicated support for the proposal, it is therefore proposed to proceed with that proposal, merging some civil parishes within the existing group to rectify the governance issues identified.
3.2 A map of the proposals is shown below:
3.3 A list of recommendations can be viewed below:
Recommendation 1 – maintain Constable Burton civil parish as it is now
Recommendation 2 – amalgamate the 4 current civil parishes of East Hauxwell, West Hauxwell, Barden, and Garriston, to form a new civil parish called Barden, Garriston and Hauxwell (indicated in blue on the map above)
Recommendation 3 – merge the 3 civil parishes of Finghall, Akebar, and Hutton Hang to form a new civil parish called Finghall (indicated in orange on the map above)
Recommendation 4 – group those 3 civil parishes (of Constable Burton, the proposed Barden, Garriston and Hauxwell and proposed Finghall) to form a group called Constable Burton and Finghall
Recommendation 5 – that group have a council, to be called Constable Burton and Finghall Parish Council (as per the current name)
Recommendation 6 – that council to have a total council size of 6 (as current) with representation as follows:
|
Proposed Civil Parishes within Parish Council |
Electorate |
Councillors |
|
Constable Burton civil parish |
139 |
2 |
|
Barden, Garriston and Hauxwell civil parish (taking in East Hauxwell civil parish, West Hauxwell civil parish, Barden civil parish, and Garriston civil parish) |
98 |
2 |
|
Finghall civil parish (taking in Finghall civil parish, Akebar civil parish and Hutton Hang civil parish) |
182 |
2 |
|
TOTALS |
Recommendation 7 – Changes to take affect administratively on 01 April 2027 with elections to the new arrangements be at the next scheduled elections in May 2027, and that changes to the electoral register required for the above take effect on the revised publication ahead of that election (planned for December 2026).
3.4 The recommendations detailed above will form the basis of the Stage 2 consultation which will commence on 19 March 2026.