Appendix 15 – Draft Recommendations for Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council
Contents
1.0 Current governance arrangements and history of the area
Current governance arrangements
2.0 Assessment of consultation responses for Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council
3.0 Final assessment and draft recommendations
Annex 15A – Consultation survey
Annex 15B – Summary of consultation responses
1.0 Current governance arrangements and history of the area
Current governance arrangements
1.1 Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council is situated within the Bedale division and is part of the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency.
1.2 Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council is formed by a group of civil parishes as follows:
|
Civil Parishes within Parish Council |
Electors (2025) |
Councillors |
|
Kirklington-cum-Upsland civil parish |
182 |
3 |
|
Sutton with Howgrave civil parish |
70 |
2 |
|
Howgrave civil parish |
2 |
|
|
TOTALS |
254 |
5 |
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 Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council does not currently meet the above requirements as Sutton with Howgrave and Howgrave civil parishes (being 2 separate civil parishes) collectively return two councillors representing both areas jointly. This would only be possible if Sutton with Howgrave and Howgrave civil parishes were joined as a single civil parish. It may be that people in the area believe this already to be the case, which they are not.
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 and 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 all existing parishes within the group, to form a new single civil parish, with no need for a grouping arrangement, as follows:
|
Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council |
Electors (2025) |
Councillors |
|
Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave civil parish |
254 |
5 |
|
TOTALS |
254 |
5 |
1.8 The parish council felt that the whole parish council area would be better served by councillors representing the council area equally and maintains the council size of 5. The proposal recognises that there are only 2 electors in Howgrave parish and 70 in Sutton Howgrave.
Five year electorate forecast
1.9 The 2030 electorate forecast for all parishes in the group is expected to be 266 (calculated using 2024 electorate) from 254, which is not a large increase, as the area is very rural.
2.0 Assessment of consultation responses for Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council
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 |
141 |
|
Consultation responses received |
6 |
|
Response rate |
4.3 % |
2.2 Consultation letters were sent to all households in the Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council area, being those directly affected by this review.
2.3 A copy of the consultation survey can be found at Annex 15A. A summary of consultation responses received can be found at Annex 15B.
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 6 respondents, 4 reported that they lived in the Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave Parish Council area. One respondent was the Division Member for Bedale, and another response was on behalf of the Parish Council.
2.6 The majority of respondents supported the proposal as detailed in the table below:
|
Option |
Number |
Percentage |
|
I support the potential solution |
3 |
50 % |
|
I do not support the potential solution |
2 |
33.3 % |
|
I am unsure |
1 |
17.7 % |
|
Total |
6 |
100 % |
2.7 Both the parish council and the division member support the proposal, along with 1 resident. 2 residents did not support and 1 who was unsure felt they didn’t have sufficient information to make a decision.
2.8 Reasons given in support of the proposal include reference to it ‘simplifying’ and ‘rationalising’ the current arrangements, and acknowledgement in the difficulties in finding willing individuals to stand in all areas. Cllr David Webster (Bedale division) supports the potential solution as it would “rationalise the electoral arrangements for the villages”.
2.9 Reasons given against the proposal were in relation to wanting to retain separate representation for Sutton Howgrave and Kirklington as 2 individual villages which are 1 mile apart, but neither referred to a solution for the specific identified issue within Howgrave and Sutton Howgrave. which may have helped show support for an alternative arrangement.
3.0 Final assessment and draft recommendations
3.1 The majority of responses (50%) indicated support for the proposal set out in consultation stage 1, and it is therefore proposed to proceed with the option consulted on and merge the 3 civil parishes within the existing council to form a single civil parish for the council area.
3.2 A map of the proposal is shown below:
3.3 A list of recommendations can be viewed below:
Recommendation 1 – amalgamation of the civil parishes of Kirklington-cum-Upsland, Sutton with Howgrave, and Howgrave to create a single civil parish
Recommendation 2 - that new single civil parish be called Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave (to match the name of the council which already covers that collective area)
Recommendation 3 - that new single civil parish to have a council named Kirklington with Sutton Howgrave parish council
Recommendation 4 - that council to have a council size of 5 (as current)
Recommendation 5 – The changes to take effect administratively on 01 April 2027 with elections to the new arrangements 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.