Venue: Council Chamber, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions
Contact: Helen Burt
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Purser, Goodheart and Ayling and Independent Persons Mr John Thompson and Mrs Sandra Prail. |
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Declarations of Interest Members and Officers are invited to make any declarations of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the item or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.
Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:
a) the item that they the interest in b) whether it is a pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interest c) the nature of the interest
Minutes: There were no Declarations of Interest made. |
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The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Standards Committee held on 11 July 2024.
Minutes: The Minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2024 were approved by the Committee and signed by the Chair. |
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Items not on the Agenda which the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency by reason of special circumstances Minutes: There were no urgent matters for this meeting. |
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Public Question Time To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes) Minutes: No public questions had been submitted for this meeting. |
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Monitoring Officer Report - October 2024 This is a regular report to the Committee by the Monitoring Officer to give the Committee an overview of the work of the Monitoring Officer that falls within the scope of the functions for which the Committee is responsible. [5 Minutes]
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Monitoring Officer introduced the report to Committee. He highlighted paragraph 4.2 ‘Maintaining the Constitution’, explaining that he had amended the Constitution to reflect the changes to the senior management structure following the arrival of Dawn Hudd as Chief Executive in July 2024. These changes were being made under the Monitoring Officer’s delegated authority.
There were no questions from Members.
The Committee noted the report.
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Member Learning and Development This report updates the Standards Committee on the current position of Member learning and development following the completion of the Member Induction Programme. [5 Minutes]
Additional documents: Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Monitoring Officer introduced the report, explaining that the training matrix had been updated to reflect that additional training for the Licencing Committee had taken place, and all Members of the Licencing Committee were now trained to sit on it.
One Member had submitted a question in advance of the meeting to the Monitoring Officer, which was around the take up of online Data Protection Training with Hut Six in July 2024 for all Council Members. The Monitoring Officer explained that he had been unable to find the answer to this prior to the meeting, however would circulate this separately to Members of the Committee.
The Committee noted the report. |
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Recruitment of Independent Persons The Standards Committee’s functions include considering membership and recruitment of Independent Persons and making recommendations for appointments to Full Council.
Independent Persons are appointed for a fixed period of time, and all three of the Council’s IPs’ terms of appointment are due to expire on 6 November 2024. A recruitment process was agreed by this Committee at its meeting on 18 January 2024 and the terms of office of the three current Independent Persons was extended to 6 November 2024 to allow for this process to be completed (as agreed by Full Council at their meeting on 17 July 2024). [10 Minutes]
Minutes: [Independent Person John Cooke and Alan Ladley (who was seated in the Public Gallery), left the meeting during discussion of this item]
The Chair wished thanks to be recorded for the current Independent Persons, Sandra Prail, John Cooke and John Thompson, who are coming to the end of their terms of service.
Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Monitoring Officer introduced the report, explaining the Independent Person interviews had taken place on Friday 4 October 2024. The interview panel consisted of Councillor David Huntley, Chair of the Standards Committee; Councillor Maralyn May, Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee; Councillor Mark Turner, Member of the Standards Committee; Sandra Prail, Independent Person; and Daniel Bainbridge, Group Head of Law & Governance. Having interviewed the candidates and assessed each against the criteria previously agreed by the Committee, the interview panel agreed to recommend the appointment of Alan Ladley, John Cooke and John Thompson. The Committee were asked to recommend to Full Council that they be appointed as Independent Persons for the period of 4 years from 7 November 2024.
There were no questions from Members.
The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Kelly and seconded by Councillor Turner.
The Committee
RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL
That Alan Ladley, John Cooke and John Thompson be appointed as Independent Persons for the period of 4 years from 7 November 2024.
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Independent Person Protocol The Standards Committee’s functions include functions relating to standards of conduct of District Councillors, Town and Parish Councillors and co-opted members under the Localism Act 2011 or regulations made under it.
National good practice is that the Council should devise and adopt a protocol to ensure there is clarity about the Independent Person role and to make sure that there is clear separation of the roles of the Independent Persons, the Monitoring Officer and the Standards Committee.
The Council has an adopted set of Local Assessment Procedures (LAP) which comprehensively set out the way in which complaints about member conduct will be dealt with by the Monitoring Officer and the Standards Committee, and the proposed Protocol mirrors the LAP’s requirements as they relate to the Independent Persons. [10 Minutes]
Additional documents: Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Monitoring Officer introduced the report. The functions of the Standards Committee included those relating to the standards of conduct of District Councillors, Town and Parish Councillors and co-opted members under the Localism Act 2011 or regulations made under it. National good practice was that the Council should devise and adopt a protocol to ensure clarity around the roles of Independent Persons and to make sure that there was clear separation of the roles of the Independent Persons, the Monitoring Officer and the Standards Committee. The Council had an adopted set of Local Assessment Procedures (LAP) which comprehensively set out the way in which complaints about Member conduct would be dealt with by the Monitoring Officer and the Standards Committee, and the proposed Protocol mirrored the LAP’s requirements. The Protocol had been devised at the recommendation of the Independent Persons and Hoey Ainscough Associates, who supported the delivery of Code of Conduct and Standards Committee induction training in 2023, and who also supported the development of the model Code of Conduct and the Council’s Local Assessment Procedures. The Monitoring Officer reminded Members that subjects of complaints, were also entitled to seek views from an Independent Person, and this would be a different Independent Person to the one providing views to the Monitoring Officer in that particular complaint.
The Chair invited debate from Members, and one Member spoke to say he was supportive of the content of the proposed protocol, but suggested the final version should be formatted with paragraph numbering and headings. The Monitoring Officer confirmed he would be happy to do this.
The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Kelly and seconded by Councillor Turner.
Having considered the Protocol,
The Committee
RESOLVED
That the Protocol be formally adopted.
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Review of Councillors Guide to Personal Safety The Councillors Guide to Personal Safety was last reviewed in March 2023. Recent incidents in 2024 which have impacted on Councillor safety have suggested that a review of the document should be undertaken and refreshed to reflect updated guidance. [20 Minutes]
Additional documents:
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Monitoring Officer introduced the report to Committee. The Councillors Guide to Personal Safety had last been reviewed in March 2023, and recent incidents in 2024 which had impacted upon Councillor safety suggested that a review of the document should be undertaken and refreshed to reflect updated guidance. The Councillor Guide to Personal Safety was introduced to help Councillors to maintain personal safety whilst conducting their duties, and was attached to the agenda pack at Appendix 1. The recommendation was that the Committee consider the Councillors Guide to Personal Safety and any updates necessary, and then for Members to seek views from their political groups regarding potential updates to the Guide. In the meantime, the Monitoring Officer would also be contacting Group Leaders to seek views, and the report would be brought back to Committee for consideration at its meeting on 16 January 2025.
The Chair invited debate and one Member shared his experience of an incident threatening his personal safety, and he expressed concern with how the police had handled his complaint. The Monitoring Officer would liaise with the Police to establish the protocol for dealing with such complaints.
The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Batley and seconded by Councillor Lawrence.
The Committee
RESOLVED that
1. The Councillors Guide to Personal Safety and any updates that it considers necessary were considered; and
2. Its Members seek views from all political groups on updates to the Guide, for consideration at the meeting on 16 January 2025.
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Register of Assessments of Complaints Against Councillors This report updates the Committee on the complaints against Councillors received since the Monitoring Officer’s last report on 11 July 2024. The Committee is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct by Members of the District and Town & Parish Councils, for monitoring the operation of the Code of Conduct, and for considering the outcome of investigations in the event of breaches of the Code of Conduct. [10 Minutes]
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Monitoring Officer introduced the report to Committee. He highlighted paragraph 4.2 which showed the complaints received, and the progress of each complaint, a number of which had been completed since the Committee last met. When looking at patterns and trends, the Monitoring Officer noted that most complaints related to Town and Parish Councillors, however some did involve Arun District Council (ADC) Councillors. There had been an increase in numbers of complaints from towns and parishes. As a comparison from last year, there had already been as many complaints in the first 6 months of this year as in the entirety of last year or the year before. He was hoping this trend would not last, and that the outcome of each complaint would have a positive impact. The Monitoring Officer had a good relationship with the Town and Parish clerks around the District, and had recently delivered Code of Conduct training in Aldwick, which had been positively received by the Councillors. There had been fewer complaints about and between Arun District Councillors than two years ago. He also felt the standard of conduct in the Council Chamber had greatly improved at ADC and Members were more aware of what was expected of them. Members and Officers were working together to achieve a reduction in complaints. There was no pattern in terms of the types of complaints being made, which was very varied.
There were no questions from Members.
The Committee noted the report.
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The Committee is required to note the Work Programme for 2024/25. [5 Minutes]
Minutes: The Committee noted the Work Programme. |