Minutes:
The Chairman, Councillor Yeates, presented the minutes from the Constitution Working Party meeting held on 2 March 2021.
Councillor Mrs Yeates alerted Members to a series of recommendations at Minute 41 [Final Report – Review of the Constitution for Transition to Committee Style of Governance]. In proposing the recommendations, Councillor Mrs Yeates confirmed that Recommendation 2 regarding the Financial Procedure Rules needed to be withdrawn as this recommendation was a duplication and had just been approved when Councillors had considered and approved the recommendations from the meeting of the Constitution Working Party held on 27 January 2021. The remaining recommendations were then seconded by Councillor Gregory, these being Recommendations (1), (3), (4) and (5).
Some Councillors spoke to confirm their views on the change to the Committee system which they opposed. They felt that the change in governance arrangements was a great mistake which could be easily proved as out of 162 District Councils only 5 operated a Committee system and some had already reverted back to a Leader and Cabinet form of governance highlighting that the Committee system did not work.
Other Councillors supported the viewpoints made and added their concern that there was still a lot of work that had not been finished and that the work undertaken to date had been rushed. A Members’ Seminar had been promised but not delivered. This was vital, as there were many Councillors who did not fully understand how the new Committee system would function and operate. Questions were asked as to whether a Members’ Seminar and training would be provided and if so, when? Similarly, Councillors asked if Officers had received appropriate training and how this was progressing.
Following some debate, the Chief Executive confirmed that out of the Council’s Senior Managers around 70-80 Officers had received training. Also, two new Committee Services Officers had been appointed ahead of the new Committee structure commencing on 19 May 2021.
Following further discussion on the timescales for this work, Councillor Yeates confirmed that a huge amount of work had been undertaken in reviewing the Council’s Constitution in preparing for the new Committee structure and she thanked Officers, especially the Chief Executive and Interim Monitoring Officer, for the work that had been presented to many meetings of the Working Party held during the last year to facilitate the change in governance structure. The result of this work was that the Council now had a final working document which would be reviewed as the new structure commenced and could be changed if it was found that there were elements that were not working or needed to be adjusted.
Following further discussion, a request was made that the voting on the recommendations be split so that a separate and recorded vote could be taken on Recommendation 1 [That the completion of the writing of the new Constitution be noted].
Those voting for Recommendation 1 were Councillors Batley, Bennett, Blanchard-Cooper, Brooks, Buckland, Coster, Dixon, Goodheart, Gregory, Hamilton, Haywood, Huntley, Jones, Lury, Needs, Oppler, Purchese, Smith, Staniforth, Stanley, Tilbrook, Thurston, Walsh, Warr and Yeates (25). No Councillors voted against. Councillors Baker, Bicknell, Bower, Caffyn, Chapman, Charles, Cooper, Cooper, Edwards, Elkins, English, Gunner, Kelly, Northeast, Oliver-Redgate, Pendleton, Roberts and Worne [19].
Recommendation 1 was therefore approved as being noted.
The Council then
RESOLVED – That
(1) The completion of the writing of the new Constitution be noted;
(2) The revised procedure in Part 5, Section 1, Rule 17 made for clarifying the procedure for Closure Motions in the proposed Constitution be approved;
(3) The revised procedure in Part 5, Section 2, Rule 13 made for clarifying the procedures for Closure Motions in the proposed Constitution be approved; and
(4) Delegated authority be given to the Interim Monitoring Officer to make consequential changes to the Constitution following this meeting.