Issue - meetings

That the report be noted.

Mr. Robert Dewey presented his report on the recent meeting of the North Wales Standards Forum, which he had attended on behalf of the Committee.

In summarising the key points of his report, he suggested that the new video due to be produced by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) could be shown at a future Standards Committee meeting.  He felt it was important to encourage more Town/Community Councils to take advantage of training opportunities and referred to the approach of the Standards Committee in Anglesey in engaging with Town/Community Councils at their meetings.

As it was Flintshire’s turn to host the next meeting of the Forum in May 2018, the Monitoring Officer would begin preparations in March/April to identify a date and agenda items.  In relation to attendance at the recent meeting, it was noted that the primary aim of the Forum was to support independent members, although councillors were also able to attend.

Mr. Dewey was thanked for his report and feedback.

The Monitoring Officer made the following responses to the issues raised:

·         Member training sessions - as previously agreed, attendance was recorded but was not available on the Council’s website.

·         Handling complaints against Members - a statutory process allowed for a hearing with case tribunal subject to meeting specific criteria.  It was possible that Member could be suspended pending the outcome, however a careful approach was needed to take account of range of factors including presumption of innocence.  Councils were able to take steps informally to protect governance where an accusation was made against a Member.  There were plans for the PSOW office to publish for consultation certain criteria that they would take into account to show transparency.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.