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Agenda item

Appointment of and Allocation of Seats on Committees for the 2021/22 Municipal Year (C3997)

To consider the appointment and allocation of seats on Committees for the next Municipal Year in accordance with the duty under Section 15 of the Local Government Housing Act 1989 and to agree the Council’s Policy Framework for 2021/22 as set out in paragraph 5.20 of the report.  

Minutes:

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 10) concerning the appointment of and allocation of seats on Committees for the 2021/22 Municipal Year. It was noted that amended appendices had been circulated.

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

“That the Council:

2.1      noted that under paragraph 8 of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, notice had been received that the Members set out in paragraph 5.1 were to be regarded as Members of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green Party Groups respectively.

2.2      the Council agreed to the appointment of the various Committees and to the number of places on each as set out in paragraph 5.4 (Table A).

2.3      the Council agreed 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 5.12 of the report (Table B).

2.4      the number of substitutes on Committees and Commissions be as set out in paragraph 5.15 (Table C).

2.5      in respect of the Area Planning Committees, a substitute Member must represent a ward within that Committee’s area, and in respect of the District Planning Committee, they must be a Member of the same Area Planning Committee as the Member they were substituting for.

2.6      the Council approved the appointment of Members to the Committees as set out in Appendix A and noted the appointments set out in Appendix B which were in accordance with the wishes of the Political Groups.

2.7      the Council, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000 as amended, agreed that the Council’s Policy Framework for 2021/22 be as set out in paragraph 5.20 of this report, and that any necessary amendments be made to the Council’s Constitution.

2.8      the Council noted that other plans, policies and strategies requiring approval which were not included in the approved Policy Framework and which were not otherwise reserved by law to Council, would be the responsibility of the Council’s Executive in accordance with the Local Government Act 2000.

2.9      the Council noted that Paragraph 2.6.5 of Article 6 of the Constitution, would be amended to reflect any changes made to the Executive Portfolios by the Leader of the Council and announced at the Executive meeting on 25 March 2021 or at the Annual Council meeting.

2.10    the appointment of two non-voting co-opted Parish/Town Councillors be made to the Governance and Ethics Committee as detailed in Appendix A.

2.11    to re-appoint three Independent Persons (Standards) namely Lindsey Appleton, James Rees and Mike Wall and to appoint an Independent Person (Audit) to focus on the risk and audit functions of the Governance and Ethics Committee.

2.12    to note the membership of the Health and Wellbeing Board as set out in Appendix A.

2.13    authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer to make any changes required to the Constitution as a result of the changes to the number of Members of the Council and following the appointments to Committees.

2.14    It was recommended that Council approve the creation of a Safer Streets Champion (as noted in Appendix B) in order to:

·         work with our communities to understand their concerns and receive suggestions for how we want to address street harassment;

·         work in partnership with Thames Valley Police to explore a potential bid for Safer Streets Fund funding;

·         work closely with the Public Protection Partnership, Thames Valley Police, Town Centre managers and others to challenge and eradicate street harassment in our district;

·         seek to develop better public awareness of what constitutes street harassment and unacceptable behaviours; and

·         work with our three West Berkshire MPs to seek further powers for the Police to be able to take appropriate action where street harassment was witnessed or reported.”

Councillor Lynne Doherty thanked Members for their contributions and work on the various committees and particularly the current Chairmen. This had been a year like no other and she appreciated that everyone had been working in very difficult circumstances. The Council had adapted well to virtual meetings which had enabled the wheels of democracy to turn in West Berkshire. Councillor Doherty noted that several changes had been made mainly due to the fact that this was the halfway point in the administration and she had wanted to enable those who had not had an opportunity to chair a committee to do so. This was in the interest of fairness and the development of some of the new Members from the 2019 intake.

Councillor Doherty also referred to page 13 of the supplementary pack from which it could be seen that a new champion role had been identified for safer streets. This followed her Motion to the Executive back on 25 March 2021 to create this role to work alongside the Safer Communities Partnership and to energise the focus around concerns of street harassment. She was pleased to recommend that Councillor Claire Rowles should take on this role of champion for safer streets as the current Member on the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel. She would be ideally placed to lead this work.

Councillor Lee Dillon had seconded the report and his party would vote in support, however, he again raised the issue around representation and it should be noted that the Joint Public Protection Committee had no Opposition on it as was the case for the new Health Scrutiny body. Also the terms of reference of the Schools Forum allowed for Executive Members to attend. Shadow Portfolio Holders could attend but were not allowed to speak at the meetings. He therefore felt that there were always improvements that could be made to ensure that there was political balance across the whole organisation.

Councillor Lynne Doherty confirmed the points made by the Monitoring Officer in terms of the composition and the proportionality. With regards to the Schools Forum it was actually schools that owned that group and set the rules which would be applied.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.

Supporting documents: