The Democracy and Standards Committee met to discuss a community governance review, appoint a co-opted member to the committee, and appoint members to the Independent Remuneration Panel and to the role of Independent Persons. The committee approved the timetable for the Community Governance Review 2025-26, recommended the appointment of Councillor Lora Lawman to the committee, recommended the appointment of five members to the Independent Remuneration Panel, and recommended the appointment of three Independent Persons.

Community Governance Review 2025-26

The committee approved the outline timetable for the Community Governance Review (CGR) 2025-26, as detailed in paragraph 5.6 of the Report CGR 2025-2026. Heather Jackson, Head of Electoral Services, updated the committee on the review of local town and parish council electoral arrangements. The timetable includes two consultation exercises. The first invites representations from parish and town councils on proposals they wish the council to consider. The second invites representations on the council's draft proposals. A project group will be convened from across service areas of the council and draft terms of reference will be brought back to committee for approval.

Following the Local Government Boundary Commission for England's (LGBCE's) review of electoral arrangements for North Northamptonshire (Electoral Changes) Order 2024, the council is tasked with undertaking periodic review of local community governance arrangements¹. This could include reviewing existing parish warding arrangements, proposing new parish wards as well as making changes to the number of councillors representing parish councils. The review might also look at the creation, amalgamation and separation of parish areas.

The community governance reviews will be completed within the recommended 12-month period and before the May 2029 local government elections.

The committee asked questions for clarity regarding the work to be undertaken and the future expectation of what may be devolved to parish and town councils across the North Northamptonshire area regarding the scope of services to be delivered by them, and the number of councillors for each area parish and town councils.

It was confirmed that parish meetings would be consulted and would have the opportunity to submit representations if they wished.

The Monitoring Officer, Kamila Coulson-Patel, clarified that the Executive Director of Place & Economy was heading up a project looking at hyper-devolution and any work undertaken by the project group will feed into such project.

Appointment of Co-opted Town and Parish Representatives

The committee recommended to full council that Councillor Lora Lawman of Loddington Parish Council be appointed as a co-opted Town and Parish representative to the Democracy and Standards Committee, in respect of standards, for a term of office until May 2029, providing eligibility criteria remains.

Ben Smith, Head of Democratic Services, informed the committee of the progress made for the nomination, selection and appointment of co-opted town and parish council representatives to the committee.

The report detailed the process that had been undertaken and the recruitment in November 2024 of Councillor Beth Ring of Weekley Parish Council and Councillor Keith Gautrey-Prue of Deene and Deenethorpe Council. One further co-opted town and parish council representative was required.

Nominations had been sought from town and parish councils and eight valid nominations were received, with each parish and town council being given the opportunity to submit one vote. Councillor Lora Lawman received the highest number of votes.

A committee member asked if the scheduled timescale had made it difficult for parish and town councils to respond, taking into consideration that many did not meet during August. Ben Smith clarified that all clerks were informed that the decision could be made outside of a formal meeting and that no queries had been raised about the timetable of the process communicate, which was consistent with that which was held in 2024.

A further question was raised about what would happen if a co-opted member had a conflict of interest in making a decision. It was confirmed that as there were three co-opted members this was not expected to create an issue.

A query was raised about the period of time that a parish councillor needed to live in a village before being co-opted to a parish council. The Monitoring Officer responded clarifying that there was no issue in this regard for the proposed appointment.

Appointments to the Independent Remuneration Panel for the Scheme of Members' Allowances

The committee recommended to full council that an Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) be established consisting of five members to include Luke Bacon, Chris Davison, Gerard Dempsey, Craig Ellis and Sue Watts, for a period ending on the annual meeting of the council to be held in May 2030. The committee also recommended that delegated authority be provided to the Monitoring Officer, should the need arise, to liaise with IRP Members from other local authorities to fill any vacancy that may arise in Panel membership prior to May 2030. The committee delegated authority to the Monitoring Officer to progress the reviews detailed within the Report IRP BS Final and to arrange for the outcome of these reviews to be presented to full council in due course.

Ben Smith advised the committee of the requirements relating to members' allowances and to appoint and re-establish an IRP to determine the future allowances of members of North Northamptonshire Council.

The report informed the committee that the last review had been carried out in 2022 by the previous panel.

In July 2025, a recruitment process for the panel was progressed with 18 applications being received. Seven applicants had been shortlisted for interviews, which had been undertaken by the Monitoring Officer and Head of Democratic Services.

The committee welcomed the work of the Monitoring Officer and Head of Democratic Services in carrying out the recruitment process.

Appointment to Role of Independent Persons – Standards

The committee recommended to full council that Mark Bate, Claire Tilley and Jessica Slater be the three candidates appointed to the role of independent persons for a term of office of two years, which can be extended once in line with best practice recommendations, as set out by the Committee for Standards in Public Life². The committee also recommended to full council that the constitution be amended to allow the Monitoring Officer to appoint an independent person from another local authority if any or all of the independent persons appointed for North Northamptonshire were unavailable.

Kamila Coulson-Patel reported on the recruitment process for the selection and appointment to the role during July 2025. A total of 16 applications were received and six candidates had been shortlisted with interviews taking place in August by an interview panel, which included the Chair of the committee, the Monitoring Officer and the Head of Democratic Services.

The chair informed the committee that the candidates had an outstanding level of experience and knowledge and a decision had been made to recommend to council the recruitment of three independent persons.

The committee noted the proposed appointments were to be for two years, with a further two-year extension allowed for. Alternative options were considered and it was concluded that the initial appointment for two years was in line with best practice recommendations as set out by the Committee for Standards in Public Life and noting that candidates had been informed of this at the interviews.

Officers were thanked for progressing the recruitment.