The Monitoring officer presented a report, the purpose of which was to:

• advise Council of the outcome of the adjusted political balance of the Authority resulting from Councillor Steven Easterbrook being elected at the recent by-election in the Bridgend Central Ward;
• seek approval of the revised political balance;
• approve the allocation of seats to political groups in accordance with political balance rules, as set out in the Appendix to the report and approve the changes to the membership of the Committees as outlined in paragraph 4.1 of this report.

She explained that there had been a recent change to the membership of political groups, whereby Councillor Steven Easterbrook (Bridgend County Independents) was elected in the recent by-election for the Bridgend Central Ward.

The change outlined above, had therefore affected the overall political balance on Committees within the Authority.

Due to this, the Monitoring Officer proposed the following changes to Committee memberships, in accordance with a provision of the Local Government Act 1972:-

1.     Town and Community Council Forum – Democratic Alliance Group to lose a seat, Bridgend County Independents to gain a seat.

2.     Development Control Committee – An Independent Member to lose a seat, Bridgend County Independents to gain a seat.

Following the review of political balance, the membership of committees has been updated to reflect the composition of Council accordingly. The updated political balance figures taking into account the above were shown within the attached Appendix to the report. 

The Monitoring Officer added, that the Group Leaders of the Bridgend County Independents and the Democratic Alliance together with Councillor Aspey, have been consulted on these changes and were in agreement with them. Both the above Group Leaders had been asked to announce at the meeting of Council on 19 October 2022, the changes required as detailed in the report, reflected in the decision below.

RESOLVED:                                That Council:-

(1)      Noted the outcome of the revised political balance of the Authority resulting from changes to the membership of political groups following the recent election of Councillor Steven Easterbrook at the by-election in the Bridgend Central Ward;

(2)    Approved the revised political balance (of the Council);

(3)    Approved the revised allocation of seats to political groups and in respect of Councillor Aspey in accordance with political balance rules as set out in the Appendix to this report and the resulting recommended changes to the membership of the Committees, as outlined in paragraph 4.1 of the report, namely that Councillor S Easterbrook gains seats on the Council’s Development Control Committee and the Town and Community Council Forum, with these seats being relinquished by Councillors S Aspey and E Richards, respectively.