Meetings

Meeting Details

Meeting Summary
Governance Committee
24 Mar 2016 - 10:00 to 11:50
Scheduled
Supper Room
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  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Standard Items
1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
To receive any apologies for absence. 


1

There were no apologies for absence.

2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

You have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter to be discussed if it relates to something on your Register of Interests form. You must declare the interest and leave the room while the matter is dealt with.

You have a Personal Interest in a matter to be discussed if it affects
•    your well being or financial position
•    that of your family or close friends
•    that of a club or society in which you have a management role
•    that of another public body of which you are a member to a greater extent than others in your ward.
You must declare a personal interest but can speak and vote on the matter.

Whenever you declare an interest you must say why the interest arises, so that it can be included in the minutes. 

2

There were no Declarations of Interest.

3 pdf MINUTES (93Kb)
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held 2 March 2016

3

The minutes of the meeting held on the 2 March 2016 were confirmed.

4 MATTERS ARISING
To consider any matters arising from the above minutes.

4

a) Committee Cycle and size of Committees 

Councillor Grey asked the Committee to give further consideration to the Committee's decision at the last meeting to agree that the numbers of Members to sit on the main Committees will be 13 Members (i.e politically balanced).

The Committee was also asked to give further consideration to the timings of meetings and whether Committee meetings could commence at 6 pm rather than 6:30 pm, and also whether the Policy and Resources Committee could be a daytime meeting rather than an evening.

Members agreed the following :-

1.  That the numbers of Members to sit on the main Committees to be 13 Members (politically balanced) and be reaffirmed but that the membership of the Audit and Risk Committee be reduced to 9 Members and that the number of Members to sit on the Appeals Committee will be 5; Area Museums will be 8; Standards will be 5; and Local Plan Working Party will be 11 (politically balanced).

2. That the timings of the meetings will remain at 6:30 pm, and that the Policy and Resources Committee will be an evening meeting.

3. That the issue of timings of meetings and sizes of Committees will be the subject of review after 6 months.
5 pdf STRUCTURE CHART - ARTICLES OF CONSTITUTION (305Kb)
Report attached

5

The Committee considered the Deputy Monitoring Officers report which detailed the proposed structure chart and also detailed the proposed articles of the Constitution as previously agreed and discussed by the Governance Committee.

The Governance Committee agreed and endorsed the proposed structure chart and articles of Constitution and Members recorded their thanks and appreciation to all Officers concerned in the preparation of these documents.

6 pdf SCHEME OF DELEGATION AND ESCALATION (94Kb)
Delegation scheme attached, it needs to be read in conjunction with Article 20 in Item 5 above.

6

The Committee considered the Deputy Monitoring Officer's report with regard to the Scheme of Delegation and Escalation.

The Interim Chief Executive Officer suggested that the Escalation of Officer/Committee Delegation in respect of financial threshold should be included in Article 20 of the Constitution.

Members were also advised that all cross referencing in respect of the Scheme of Delegation within the Articles of the Constitution would be completed before Council in April.

The Governance Committee approved and endorsed the Scheme of Delegation and Escalation.

7 SUMMARY OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
The summary report will follow.

Updated hard copy versions of the Constitution will be available at the meeting.

7

The Committee considered the Deputy Monitoring Officer's report on the summary of changes in respect of the Constitution.

The Governance Committee agreed and endorsed the summary of Constitutional Changes report.

 
8 pdf COMMITTEE TIMETABLE 2016-17 (84Kb)
Two versions of timetable attached for consideration

8

The Committee considered the Cabinet Secretary's proposed Committee timetable for 2016/17.

Members were advised that a version of the timetable now included pre-agenda meetings. The Committee discussed the proposal to hold Council meetings on a Thursday and it was agreed that the Cabinet Secretary should revise the timetable and change Council meetings from a Thursday to a Tuesday.

The Interim Chief Executive Officer also reported that it was likely that there would be a need for a special meeting of Council to be arranged in June to consider Devolution issues.

The Governance Committee endorsed the proposed Committee timetable for 2016/17 subject to amendments discussed above.

9 pdf APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEE CHAIRS (87Kb)
Report attached

9

The Committee considered the Deputy Monitoring Officer's report with regard to the appointment of Committee Chairs.

The Governance Committee endorsed the recommendation, that if Members wished to retain, as their principal objective, the application as far as possible of the political balance rules to the appointment of Chairs, then the optimum chance of achieving this, is to have Chairs appointed by the Council.

10 OUTSIDE BODIES
Report to follow

10

Members were reminded that at their previous meeting they had asked the Officers to review the Council's Appointment's to Outside Bodies. Accordingly, the Committee now considered the Cabinet Secretary's report which detailed a review of Outside Bodies which had summarised the work undertaken by each of the Outside Bodies and also the comments that had been received from those Members currently sitting on those Outside Bodies. The report recommended a number of deletions from the current Outside Bodies list.

The Governance Committee agreed and endorsed the proposed suggested amendments to the Outside Bodies list and agreed that the Officers should now complete a definitive list of proposals for appointments to Outside Bodies.

11 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
To consider any other business as may be determined by the Chairman of the meeting as being of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration.

12

REPORT TO COUNCIL - 12 APRIL 2016 ON COMMITTEE SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE
11

The Committee considered the Interim Chief Executive Officers' proposed report which would be submitted for consideration by Council at its meeting on the 12 April in respect of the Committee System of Governance. Members were advised that the report would be supplemented with additional information that had been agreed by the Governance Committee.

The Interim Chief Executive Officer also reported that the Deputy Monitoring Officer would arrange drop in sessions for Members to go through the detail of the proposals as now agreed for a new Committee System of Governance as agreed by the Governance Committee.

Additional Meeting Documents

  1. pdf CONSTITUTION SUMMARY OF CHANGES-V1 - Private

Attendance

Attended - Other Members
Name
No other member attendance information has been recorded for the meeting.
Apologies
NameReason for Sending Apology
No apology information has been recorded for the meeting.
Absent
NameReason for Absence
No absentee information has been recorded for the meeting.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

PRESENT :

Councillor Plant (in the Chair); Councillors Annison, Carpenter, Grey, Myers, Thirtle, T Wainwright, Walker and Williamson.

Mrs S Oxtoby (Interim Chief Executive Officer), Mr D Johnson (nplaw), Mr R Hodds (Cabinet Secretary), Mr J Cade (Consultant)


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