AM 748/26 – Appointment of Authority Representative’s on External Organisations

AM 748/26

NEW FOREST NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY

AUTHORITY MEETING – 15 OCTOBER 2026

APPOINTMENT OF AUTHORITY REPRESENTATIVES ON EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS

Report by: Vicki Gibbon, Member Services Administrator

Summary:

This report asks Members to consider appointments to external organisations for the period until the next Annual meeting of the Authority in 2027. A list of organisations and current representatives is set out at Annex 1 of the report, together with a column (at the far right of the table) showing the results of a survey of Members’ preferences for the appointments.

Recommendations:

To approve the appointments to external organisations for the period up to the Annual meeting of the Authority in 2027 on the following basis:

1. to re-appoint to all those appointments for which there is no change or the correct number of volunteers have come forward (as listed in Annex 1 to this report);
2. to hold a ballot for those appointments in respect of which too many volunteers have come forward; and
3. to seek and appoint volunteers to represent the NPA on those organisations in respect of which no or insufficient volunteers have come forward.

INTRODUCTION

1. This report asks Members to consider appointments to external organisations for the period until the next Annual meeting of the Authority in 2027.
2. Since 2005 the Authority has been invited to, or has sought representation on, a number of organisations and partnerships. Some of these focus on specific National Park activities and functions. Others are linked to local authority business or regional fora, and some are decision-making bodies and others are consultative fora.
3. In order to facilitate the process of appointing external representatives at the Annual Authority meeting, the Member Services Administrator wrote to Members on 26 August inviting them to state their preferred choices by completing and returning a preference form.
4. In the spirit of Team New Forest, all Members representing the Authority’s interests on external organisations are encouraged to contact the relevant lead officer to establish which issues need to be reported back to other Members and officers, and how, with the assistance of the relevant lead officer, this might best be achieved. Any issues arising from these external contacts which require Authority consideration will form part of a report compiled by the relevant lead officer with input from the relevant Member.

PROPOSED APPOINTMENTS

5. A schedule listing all the current appointments is attached as Annex 1, together with a right hand column setting out Members’ preferences for the appointments. In many cases, Members opted to continue with their current appointments, or else the correct number of Member volunteers came forward, and it is recommended that these appointments be confirmed as per the schedule.
6. In respect of some appointments, too many volunteers have come forward and Members are asked to hold a ballot for those appointments highlighted in yellow on Annex 1.
7. Members are also asked to seek and appoint volunteers to represent the NPA to those organisations in respect of which no or insufficient volunteers have come forward and which are highlighted in blue on Annex 1

Recommendations:

To approve the appointments to external organisations for the period up to the Annual meeting of the Authority in 2027, or until such earlier time as the NPA wishes to amend the representation, on the following basis:

1. to re-appoint to all those appointments for which there is no change or the correct number of volunteers have come forward (as listed in Annex 1 to this report);
2. to hold a ballot for those appointments in respect of which too many volunteers have come forward; and
3. to seek and appoint volunteers to represent the NPA on those organisations in respect of which no or insufficient volunteers have come forward.

Equality Impact Assessment: There are no equality or diversity implications arising directly from this report.