Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

 

“1.0     Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

           

            To consider the appointment of Members to the four Partnership Boards.

 

2.0       Recommendations

 

2.1       The Committee is recommended to:

 

1.     approve the use of the Quota Greatest Remainder method to identify those parties entitled to nominate representatives to the Forward South Belfast and Eastside Partnership Boards, based upon the number of Members returned at the Local Elections for the District Electoral Areas coterminous with the Partnerships’ areas;

 

2.     approve the Party allocations for the Forward South and Eastside Partnerships as set out below; and

 

3.     approve the compromise arrangement for the appointment of Members to the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Partnership Boards and to the Party allocations under this arrangement as set out below.

 

3.0       Main Report

 

            Key Issues

 

            The Council has, since 2011, made nominations of Members to serve on the 4 Partnership Boards (Forward South, Eastside and West Belfast and Greater Shankill).  These nominations were made from the Members returned for the related District Electoral Areas (DEAs) at the Local Elections, depending upon the political party strengths in those DEAs.

 

            The representation on each of the Partnerships is as follows:

 

            Forward South Partnership – 5 Members

            Eastside Partnership – 3 Members

            West Belfast Partnership – 8 Members

            Greater Shankill Partnership - 6 Members

 

            The Committee is recommended to again adopt the Quota Greatest Remainder system of proportionality to determine the party representation to the Partnership Boards in South and East Belfast as set out below.

 

            Forward South Partnership Board (5 Members)

 

            The appointees are drawn proportionately from the Parties represented in the Balmoral and Botanic DEAs.

 

            The strengths of the Parties in these DEAs is set out below, together with the number of places which the Parties would be entitled to on the Board based upon the strict application of proportionality.

 

 

Party	Number of Members	Representation
ALL	3	(1.50) 2
DUP	2	(1.00) 1
SF	2	(1.00) 1
SDLP	2	(1.00) 1
Green	1	(0.50) 0
	10	5

 

            Four of the five seats are allocated automatically.  The Quota Greatest Remainder system dictates that where two or more parties have the same figure the available place(s) should be allocated to the parties which attracted the most first preference votes in the most recent elections.  Accordingly, the extra place is allocated to the Alliance Party.

 

            The overall allocation is 2 Alliance, 1 DUP, 1 SF and 1 SDLP.

 

            Eastside Partnership Board (3 Members)

 

            In previous years, there were 8 Elected Members on the Eastside Partnership Board.

 

            However, in March 2023, correspondence was received from the Chief Executive Officer stating that, following a governance review of the Board, there will only be 3 spaces for Belfast City Council Elected Members and preference is that there would be one Councillor from each of the DEAs - Lisnasharragh, Ormiston and Titanic.

 

            The representation is based on the use of the Quota Greatest Remainder would be as follows:

 

            Lisnasharragh

 

Party	Number of Members	Representation
ALL	2	(0.33) 1 *
DUP	2	(0.33) 0
Green	1	(0.16) 0
SDLP	1	(0.16) 0
	6	1

 

            *Greater number of 1st Preference votes

 

 

            Ormiston

 

Party	Number of Members	Representation
ALL	3	(0.5) 1
DUP	2	(0.33) 0
Green	1	(0.17) 0
UUP	1	(0.17) 0
	6	1

 

            Titanic

 

Party	Number of Members	Representation
DUP	2	(0.33) 1 *
ALL	2	(0.33) 0
SF	1	(0.17) 0
UUP	1	(0.17) 0
	6	1

 

            The seats are allocated as follows: 2 Alliance and 1 DUP

 

            West Belfast Partnership Board (8 Members) and Greater Shankill Partnership Board (6 Members)

 

            The redrawing of the DEAs for the new Council had a particularly significant effect in the West and Greater Shankill areas of the city and, similarly, with the consideration of the appointment of Members to the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Partnership Boards. 

 

            The area covered by the Greater Shankill Partnership Board encompasses most of the Court DEA, excluding the Lower Falls area, as well as parts of the Oldpark area.  The West Belfast Partnership by contrast includes Black Mountain and Collin DEAs as well as the Lower Falls and part of the Court DEA.   It is therefore very difficult to identify DEAs which are coterminous with the area covered by the two Boards.

 

            Given this disparity, it is considered that the best way to proceed is to take the 8 places on the West Belfast Partnership Board and the 6 on the Greater Shankill Partnership Board together and allocate places based upon the Party strengths across the Black Mountain, Collin, Court and Oldpark DEAs.  Accordingly, the representation to the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Partnership Boards would be:

 

 

Party	Number of Members	Representation
SF	17	(9.5) 9
DUP	4	(2.24) 2
PBPA	1	(0.56)) 1
SDLP	1	(0,56) 1
IND	1	(0.56) 1
TUV	1	(0.56) 0
	25	14

 

            Eleven of the fourteen seats are allocated automatically.  The PBPA, SDLP, Independent and TUV all have an equal greatest remainder figure of .56.

 

            The Quota Greatest Remainder system dictates that where two or more parties have the same figure the available place(s) should be allocated to the parties which attracted the most first preference votes in the most recent elections.  In this instance (taking into account the first preference votes across the four DEAs) the remaining seats are allocated to PBPA, SDLP and the Independent.

 

            Accordingly, the overall allocation across the two Boards is: 9 SF, 2 DUP, 1 PBPA, 1 SDLP and 1 Independent.

 

            As in previous years, it is recommended that the Party Leaders concerned meet to reach a compromise position for the allocation of seats on both Partnerships.

 

            Financial and Resource Implications

 

            None associated with this report.

 

            Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment

 

            None associated with this report.”

 

            The Committee adopted the recommendations.