Agenda item

Purpose: To consider the appointment and allocation of seats on Committees and associated bodies for the 2016/17 Municipal Year; and to agree the Council’s Policy Framework for 2016/17.

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 10) concerning the appointment and allocation of seats on Committees and associated bodies for the 2016/17 Municipal Year.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Roger Croft and seconded by Councillor Graham Jones:

That the Council:

1.            “notes that under Paragraph 8 of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, notice has been received that the Members set out in paragraph 1.1 of Appendix A to this report are to be regarded as Members of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Groups respectively.

2.            agrees to the appointment of the various Committees and to the number of places on each as set out in paragraph 2.2 (Table A).

3.            agrees to the allocation of seats to the Political Groups in accordance with section 15(5) of the Local Government Act 1989 as set out in paragraph 3.4 of Appendix A (Table B).

4.            agrees that the number of substitutes on Committees and Commissions be as set out in paragraph 4.1 of Appendix A (Table C).

5.            agrees that in respect of the District and Area Planning Committees, the substitute Members are all drawn from Members representing wards within the Committee’s area who are not appointed to the Committee. Where substitutes attend the District Planning Meeting they need to be drawn from the same Area Planning meeting as the Member they are substituting for.

6.            approves the appointment of Members to the Committees as set out in Appendix B and in accordance with the wishes of the Political Groups.

7.            in accordance with Regulation 4, Schedule 3 of the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000, and the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) (Amendment No.2) Regulations 2008, agrees the Council’s Policy Framework for 2016/17 be as set out in paragraph 6.1 of Appendix A and that any appropriate amendments be made to the Council’s Constitution (Paragraph 2.5.2) should this be necessary.

8.            in accordance with Regulation 5, Schedule 4 of the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000, approves that all other plans, policies and strategies requiring approval and not included in the approved Policy Framework be delegated to the Council’s Executive.

9.            agrees that Paragraph 2.6.5 of Article 6, setting out the Executive Portfolios, be amended to reflect any changes made by the Leader of the Council at the Annual Council meeting.

10.         agrees that the appointment of two non voting co-opted Parish/Town Councillors be made to the Governance and Ethics Committee.

11.         agrees that the appointment of two Parish/Town Councillors be made to the Governance and Ethics Committee’s Advisory Panel.

12.         agrees to re-appoint three Independent Persons, namely Lindsey Appleton, James Rees and Mike Wall should they be willing to continue to fulfil this role.

13.         agrees the membership of the Health and Wellbeing Board as set out in paragraph 9.1.

14.         agrees the membership of the three Scrutiny Select Committees as set out in paragraph 2.2 (Table A) of Appendix A.

15.         agrees that authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer to make any changes required to the Constitution as a result of the appointments to Committees.

16.         agrees the revised timetable of meetings for 2016/17, attached at Appendix C to the report.”

Councillor Roger Croft welcomed the introduction of the Select Committees and stated that the appointments of his Group represented an attempt to reflect the geographical spread of Conservative Members across the District.

Councillor Alan Macro commented that his Group were largely supportive of the proposals set out in the report. Their only reservation was that the Select Committees would only meet twice each year which would make it difficult to maintain continuity. He also would have liked to see the meetings aligned to the performance monitoring cycle.

Councillor Roger Croft accepted the comments made by Councillor Macro in relation to the frequency of meetings. There were however issues surrounding resources to support the meetings. He would however write to Councillor Macro to set out the Scrutiny Framework that he was working towards. The Select Committees would be put in place for a year as a trial period. During that time he would work with the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission and Councillor Macro to see how the authority could do more work in this area. He committed to working closely with Councillor Macro to look into how more meetings could be held.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.