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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber Council Offices Market Street Newbury

Contact: Democratic Services Team 

Note: This meeting can be viewed online from 4pm on the 29 April 2020 at: https://youtu.be/kBzDOAObiDk 

Items
No. Item

61.

Welcome and Tribute

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to West Berkshire Council’s first ever remote meeting of Full Council.

 

Councillor Lee Dillon noted the sad passing of former Councillor Terry Port who had represented the Thatcham South Ward. He commented that he was grateful for the advice and support offered to him by Councillor Port when he was first elected. He would be remembered for many things but especially for the wealth of knowledge and expertise he had in relation to highways and health and safety matters. The Council asked that its condolences be passed on to Terry’s friends and family.

62.

Declarations of Interest

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

63.

Remote Council Meetings pdf icon PDF 86 KB

Purpose: This report proposes a number of changes to the Council’s Constitution (“the Constitution”) to enable the Council to hold and effectively manage meetings held under The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panels Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020  which shall be referred to in this report as ‘Remote Council Meetings’.  

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 3) which proposed a number of changes to the Council’s Constitution to enable the Council to hold and effectively manage meetings held under The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panels Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 which came into force on the 4th April 2020.  The Regulations would cease to have effect on the 21st May 2021

The regulations removed the legal obligation to hold local authority meetings at a specified physical location, by permitting members and others attending the meeting to do so by way of ‘remote attendance’. 

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Lynne Doherty and seconded by Councillor Lee Dillon:

That the Council:

1.    “approves the following changes to the Constitution insofar as they apply to Remote Council Meetings only:

(a)         Any right given to a member of the public to speak at any Council meeting shall not apply to Remote Council Meetings.  This right will be replaced with the ability to make written submissions. 

(b)          Written submissions that replace the right of a member of the public to speak for up to five minutes, shall be limited to a written submission of no more than 500 words. (This limit shall be applied pro rata to any different time limit detailed within the Constitution.)  Written submissions must be submitted to the Council no later than midday, two days before the meeting.

(c)          Where practicable, written submissions made as an alternative to a previous right to address a Committee will be read aloud at the Remote Council Meeting.  Where multiple parties make written submissions, these will all be made available to the Members of the Committee, but it will not be appropriate to read all aloud.  In such circumstances, an officer will provide a verbal summary for the Remote Council Meeting of the issues raised. 

(d)          Where a member of the public has the right to ask a question at a meeting of the Council, they will continue to have the right to ask the question but that will be done in writing only. Members of the public will have no right to ask a supplementary question during a Remote Council Meeting. 

(e)         The Chairman of any meeting may determine to provide written answers only to questions submitted by members of the public.  However, questions submitted to Remote Council Meetings and the responses provided will be published in full.  

(f)          Members of the public will have no right to present a Petition during a Remote Council Meeting. 

2.           Any statutory right for a person other than a Member or Officer of the Council to attend, and/or speak at, and/or raise verbal questions at, a Remote Council Meeting shall not be affected by this Resolution. 

3.             The Monitoring Officer is authorised to publish a statement setting out the effect of this Resolution in the Constitution and in any other place considered necessary to bring it to the attention of anyone affected as she  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.