Agenda item

The Council to agree any changes to the membership of Committees.

Councillor Dillon proposed a brief adjournment due to technical difficulties, which was seconded by Councillor Ross Mackinnon.

The proposal by Councillor Dillon and seconded by Councillor Mackinnon was put to a vote and was passed.

(Council adjourned at 19:23 pm and returned at 19:29 pm.)

Sarah Clarke explained that due to the notification of the formation of a new political group, Agenda Item 18 on the Appointment of and Allocation of Seats on Committees, would be withdrawn as the report was out of date and an updated report would be presented to Council, as soon as reasonably practicable, to reflect the creation of the new political group, of which notification had only arrived the day of Council. 

Councillor Abbs expressed that he was disappointed that the proper allocation of seats could not be decided within the Council meeting, as it would waste Officer’s time to deal with it in a future meeting. Ms Clarke explained that West Berkshire Council had a legal obligation to reflect the political balance of the Council and that the report for Item 18 dealt with a change to the political groups that had occurred in October. It was important that Members of the Council and residents received full transparency in the form of a report that would confirm which Members would be part of which group. Seats on committees were allocated on that basis, as per the legislative framework. Ms Clarke stated that the report would come back to Council as soon as reasonably practicable, therefore the changes made within Item 7 were to reflect the decisions made in the previous Full Council meeting.

Councillor Abbs asked whether the new report would make it to the Extraordinary Council on the 19 December 2023 and stated that there was an official confirmation in the form of a note to the Chief Executive, on the Tuesday before the meeting, of which the Councillor had been informed was all that was needed. 

The Chairman highlighted the importance of having the creation of a new political group officially noted within the agenda otherwise it would be unfair to ask Members to vote on a report they were not familiar with. The Chairman assured the Councillor that he would bring the report back to Council as soon as possible.

Council were advised of the following changes to the membership of Committees since the previous Council meeting:

·         Appointment of Councillor Anthony Amirtharaj to the Western Area Planning Committee in place of Councillor Adrian Abbs.

·         Appointment of Councillor Stuart Gourley as Substitute for the Western Area Planning Committee in place of Councillor Anthony Amirtharaj.

·         Appointment of Councillor Laura Coyle to the Governance Committee in place of Councillor Ian Cottingham.

·         Appointment of Councillor Justin Pemberton to the Health Scrutiny Committee in place of Councillor Stuart Gourley.

·         Appointment of Councillor Billy Drummond as Substitute for the Health Scrutiny Committee in place of Councillor Justin Pemberton.

·         Appointment of Councillor Vicky Poole to the Personnel Committee in place of Councillor Stuart Gourley.

·         Appointment of Councillor Laura Coyle as Substitute of the Scrutiny Commission in place of Councillor Stuart Gourley.