Councillor Resignations and Political Balance
Political Groups
Rochdale Borough Council has four political groups
Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Independent
Alliance. By definition a political group needs to be
comprised of two or more Members who have indicated by notice to
the Service Director for Legal & Democratic
Services (as Proper Officer) that they wish to constitute a named
group, such notice also to indicate the identity of the Leader of
the Group. On an optional basis, that notice may also indicate the
name of the Deputy Leader. The notice must be signed by all Members
who wish to form the Group.
The Regulations allow for Groups which are described in
substantially similar terms to be treated as a single group for the
purposes of determining the allocation of seats.
Once formed, changes in leadership and membership can be made by
further notice to the Service Director for Legal
and Democratic Services (as Proper Officer). The wishes of the
Group can be made known by the Leader or a majority of Group
Members unless it relates to a change in Leader in which event the
notice must be signed by the majority of the Group.
The Regulations may provide particular support for those Members
who have been elected, say, as independent, Council Tax payers'
representatives etc., who may wish to combine as an "independent"
group. It will not, as a matter of course, entitle Members of
such a Group to seats on every Committee or Sub-Committee or even a
majority of them unless the Group is sizeable.
Resigning from a Political Group
Section 10 of The Local
Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990
details how a Councillor can resign from a political group.
If a Member wishes to change groups or simply cease to be a Member
of any group they must inform the Proper Officer. A person is
to be treated as having ceased to be a member of a political group
when:
(a) he has ceased to be a member of the authority;
(b) he has notified the proper officer in writing that he no
longer wishes to be treated as a member of the group;
(c) there is delivered to the proper officer a notice under
regulation 8 or 9(b) signed by the person whereby a new political
group is constituted or he joins another political group; or
(d) there is delivered to the proper officer a notice in writing
signed by the majority of the members of the group stating that
they no longer wish him to be treated as a member of it.
The Cabinet
The Cabinet is made up of the Leader of the Council, who is
appointed by the whole Council, and further Councillors
appointed by the Leader. The Cabinet may comprise members
from one political group only, or may comprise Members from two or
more groups.
Political Balance
The allocation of Council Committee
places must be made in accordance with the provisions of the Local
Government and Housing Act, 1989. Achieving political balance is a
complex process which requires a compromise to be made between sets
of calculations . This can result in marginal differences which may
be significant to Committee representation of individual political
groups. The required “balance” has to be achieved by the Council
allocating seats on individual Committees to properly constituted
political groups based on the size of each group in relation to the
size of the Council and so far as is reasonably practicable at the
same time the total number of seats allocated to each group across
all Committees must be in the same proportion.