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Decision details

NOTICE OF MOTIONS

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Decision:

In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.12, two motions had been submitted by the required deadline set out in the Constitution.

 

(A)  Paternity Leave

 

RESOLVED: That Council:

 

(1)   Request Officers work with the Executive Member – Resources to explore eligible Council employees to receive further enhanced paternity and adoption provision for second parents, including consideration of an offer of six weeks paid paternity or adoption leave at a minimum of 90% of their salary. A paper will be produced in time for a wider discussion at the January Joint Staff Consultative Committee, as well as a consultation with our staff and trade union.

 

(2)   Requested that the Leader of the Council writes to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade urging the Government to introduce six weeks’ fully paid paternity leave nationally.

 

(B)  Local Government Reorganisation

 

RESOLVED: That Council:

 

(1)   Requested the Chief Executive of North Hertfordshire District Council to provide a full accounting of the costs already incurred by the Council as a result of LGR, including additional staffing, officer time, consultants’ fees, legal advice, recruitment, training, project management and other transition costs.

 

(2)   Requested the Leader of North Hertfordshire District Council to write to Angela Rayner MP, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to:

 

a)     demand publication of the full rationale, evidence, financial assessments and departmental analysis underpinning the decision to select four unitary authorities for Hertfordshire.

b)     seek an explanation of how ministers assessed the financial sustainability of the four-unitary model, including the projected £22 million first-year deficit for Central Hertfordshire.

c)     seek a commitment that councils will be fully compensated for reasonable and demonstrable costs incurred as a direct consequence of the Government’s LGR programme and its subsequent halt.

d)     seek immediate clarity and reassurance for council officers whose employment, structures, reporting arrangements and career prospects have been thrown into uncertainty.

e)     seek clarity on the Government’s intentions and timetable for the future of Local Government Reorganisation in Hertfordshire following the cancellation of the May 2027 shadow authority elections; and

f)       demand that North Hertfordshire District Council is fully consulted before any further decision is taken, with that consultation involving representatives of all political groups on the Council and not solely the administration.

 

(3)   Called on the Government to ensure that any future proposals for local government in Hertfordshire put financial sustainability, effective public services, community links and the interests of residents, council taxpayers and frontline staff ahead of arbitrary ministerial timetables

 

(4)   Called on the Government to learn the fundamental lesson from this process: councils should never again be required to spend millions of pounds, consume thousands of hours of officer time and destabilise local government before the Government has established that its proposals are financially credible, legally sound and capable of being delivered.

Publication date: 12/10/2026

Date of decision: 08/10/2026

Decided at meeting: 08/10/2026 - Council

Accompanying Documents: