Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Holt.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2025.

Councillor Connolly proposed, and Councillor Jacobs seconded a motion that the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2025, be approved as a correct record, and be signed by the Chair. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2025, be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chair.

The Chair presented the report and said he would be going through each parish council in the order given in the report. He said the group had listened to representations from various parish councils at last week’s meeting. Councillor Holt had given his apologies to the meeting but had sent round his thoughts following last week’s meeting.

Aston Parish Council

Councillor Thomas said that he sympathised with the comments from Aston Parish Council about requesting that Hazel Park have its own community council separate to Aston. He recognised that the communities were very different but felt that it was too early to recommend that a new community council be formed given the small number of registered electors in the development. He felt that this was something that should be reconsidered in the near future.

Councillor Connolly said that the representative from the parish council had suggested that a new community council should be formed when the development was 50% occupied. It was currently forecast to be at 50% in 2027, and 100% in 2030. She asked if the group could make a recommendation to revisit this at a set point in the future.

The Deputy Electoral Services Manager said that the Community Governance Review working group could be reconvened next year and this recommendation could be put to Council. He said that any final recommendations agreed in this review would be in place for the 2027 elections, and the next scheduled elections following 100% completion of this development would be 2031. He added that the government’s proposed change to unitary councils was currently speculative.

Councillor Jacobs asked for clarification that if the group recommended that a community council was established for Hazel Park, then it would not be in place until 2031.

The Deputy Electoral Services Manager said that it would not come in until a normal election cycle. If a council was set up in between, then they could appoint councillors for a shorter term to then fall into the normal election cycle. He said that there were currently 30 people registered in the development which was not enough to form a council and the guidance points to a minimum of 150 people.

Councillor Williams referred to the proposed unitary reorganisation and asked if there was scope to incorporate this area into Stevenage.

The Deputy Electoral Services Manager said any incorporation into a unitary reorganisation was purely speculative currently. He said that councils can request that their district boundaries be changed via the Local Government Boundary Commission.

Councillor Williams said it was his preference that it was moved into the Stevenage district.

Councillor Thomas said that he understood the point but said that the development north of Stevenage has existed for over 20 years and had remained within North Herts District Council so there wasn’t a precedent to potentially merge. He said that given the size of the planning permissions given for Hazel Park, it was worth looking at in its own light. Residents would be part of an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.