CONSTITUTION WORKING PARTY 20TH OCTOBER, 2005 Minutes of the meeting of the Constitution Working Party of the Flintshire County Council held at County Hall, Mold on Thursday, 20th October, 2005. PRESENT: Councillor R.J.T. Guest (Chairman) Councillors: Mrs. D.S. Banks, D. Barratt, J.G. Beard, D.M.D. Clayton, D.L. Cox. P.G. Heesom, R.P. MacFarlane, N.R. Steele-Mortimer and P.J. Walkden. SUBSTITUTES: Councillors J.B. Attridge for Mrs. G.D. Diskin and C. Bithell for M. Higham. APOLOGIES: Councillors: D. Darlington and A. Woolley. IN ATTENDANCE: Monitoring Officer and Democratic Services Manager. 8. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST None were received. 9. MINUTES The minutes of the previous meeting of the Working Party held on 9th June, 2005, copies of which had been previously circulated to Members, was submitted. MATTERS ARISING Minute 4 and previous minute number 22 – Access to Building Sub-Group Councillor P.G. Heesom said that there were 2 issues still outstanding in relation to Members’ car parking and photocopying. The Monitoring Officer said he would check the position with regards to the provision of a new photocopier in the Members’ Room and the situation with regard to access out of office hours. On the issue of Members’ car park arrangements, he confirmed that the provision of a barrier at one end of the car park was being investigated and he would report back on this. Councillor N.R. Steele-Mortimer reported that he had raised this issue at the Group Leaders’ meeting and confirmed the comments of the Monitoring Officer. Councillor D.M.D. Clayton referred to another outstanding issue in relation to elected Members and harassment/bullying of staff and the concern expressed by the Trade Unions on the lack of progress. The Monitoring Officer said that it had been previously agreed that the Chief Executive would write to Group Leaders and he understood that such a letter had been sent but would check this with the Chief Executive. 10. FORMAT OF MINUTES A report of the Monitoring Officer, copies of which had been previously circulated to Members, was submitted. The Monitoring Officer presented the report, the purpose of which was to report the recommendations of the Members’ Working Group which had been set up to consider the format of minutes. He considered it was appropriate to append the previous minutes of the Working Party to the report to enable Members to see how the issues had developed. There were 2 issues which had arisen which were the procedure for consideration and adoption of minutes and secondly the actual format of minutes. The Monitoring Officer referred to the consultation that had been undertaken with other unitary authorities in Wales to ascertain what practices had been adopted and this had previously been reported to an earlier Working Party meeting. It was clear that Flintshire was out of line with other local authorities who did not submit minutes of Committees to the County Council for approval. It was noted that Wrexham County Borough Council was also to reconsider its position and would probably adopt a similar practice. The Minute Book would be retained but would be published separately from the agenda of the County Council and published on a monthly basis. A new procedure rule would be introduced to enable any Member to ask a question provided written notice had been given on any minutes apart from the Regulatory Committees. It was proposed that 3 days notice would be required and this would require an amendment to the Constitution and Council Procedure Rule 9.2. Further consideration would be required, however, on how answers should or could be provided when they involved confidential matters. The Monitoring Officer explained that if the recommendations were adopted by the County Council, this would give the Council meetings more time to deliberate on other reports for consideration rather than the time consuming consideration of proceeding through the minutes page by page. The Monitoring Officer then referred to the second issue of the format of minutes. There had been a general consensus that minutes should be shorter particularly the Overview and Scrutiny Committees’ minutes and that instead of repeating large parts of the report to which they referred, they could set out the main issues discussed by the Committee and to summarise the findings. It was noted that the minutes of the Planning and Licensing Committees would retain their existing format. The Working Party had also considered the naming of Members in minutes and following consultation, the proposal was that the naming of Members in minutes should continue. However, this would be restricted to include names where it would be necessary to do so particularly in order to identify a speaker from a two Member ward and also where it would be necessary to reflect the balance of any debate that had taken place. In conclusion, the Monitoring Officer said that the recommendations would be reported to the County Council and if agreed would be subject to a review in 6 to 12 months time. The Chairman and the Monitoring Officer responded to questions regarding the format of the minutes and the timing of the publication of the Minute Book and submission of written questions on its contents. The Chairman emphasised that it had been envisaged that a Member should first approach the appropriate Officer or Executive Member on an issue in the minutes and, only if a response was not satisfactory, would the Member then submit a question on the contents of the minutes. This would then be considered at the next ordinary meeting of the County Council. A Member referred to the Planning and Development Control Committee minutes and the recommendation that they should retain their existing format. He suggested that more details should be included on those decisions which went against the recommendations of the Officers to enable members of the public to be more informed of the decisions made. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that if a decision was against the Officer’s recommendation this would be reflected in the minute. He also confirmed that Planning and Development Control Committee was attended by a legal officer and an experienced Committee clerk and the minutes were prepared to reflect the considerations of the planning application and the reasons for the decision. Councillor D.M.D. Clayton referred to appendix E to the report which contained the minutes of the Working Group held on 22nd September, 2005 and paragraph (c). The proposal was to introduce a new Procedure Rule to enable any Member to ask a question providing written notice had been given on any minute apart from the Regulatory Committees. It had been suggested that 3 clear working days would be the appropriate period of time to give such notice and he said that this would create an anomaly with the current Procedure Rule with regard to written questions to County Council which required 10 working days. As a compromise he suggested that 5 days may be appropriate. Members present referred to the current arrangements for submitting Notices of Motions and written questions to County Council which needed to be retained. The proposal of the Working Party was specific to the minutes of Committees and the process would provide more transparency in democracy and accountability in relation to how decisions were arrived at. The practicalities of the number of working days notice being reduced was referred to by the Officers particularly in relation to the preparation of written answers to questions by Directors. Councillor P.G. Heesom referred to the management of the procedures and to the workload of Officers and asked that consideration be given to the possible introduction of a business manager type of role which would provide a reference point for Members and who would provide a co-ordinating role. Councillor Heesom then moved the recommendations of the report which were duly seconded. The Monitoring Officer said that if Members endorsed the recommendations he would prepare a report for consideration by the County Council at its Ordinary Meeting on 8th November, 2005 which would set out the recommendations and would provide an amendment to Council Procedure Rule 9.2 to 9.4. In conclusion, Councillor P.G. Heesom thanked the Chairman and the Monitoring Officer for their contribution to the meetings of the Working Party and the Chairman expressed his appreciation of these comments and thanked the other Officers who had made a contribution to the meetings. RESOLVED: (a) That the consensus arrived at by the Working Group as set out in paragraph 2.04 of the report and sections B, C, D, E, and F be recommended for acceptance by the County Council and any necessary amendments to the Constitution be implemented. (b) That the practice of naming Members in minutes should continue but be curtailed to include names where it would be necessary to do so, particularly in order to reflect the balance of any debate that may have taken place; and (c) That the situation be reviewed in 6 to 12 months from the introduction of the new practices. 11. DURATION OF MEETING The meeting commenced at 10.00 a.m. and ended at 10.40 a.m. ………………………….. Chairman SUMMARY OF DECLARATIONS MADE BY MEMBERS IN ACCORDANCE WITH FLINTSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL’S CODE OF CONDUCT CONSTITUTION WORKING PARTYDATE:20TH OCTOBER, 2005 MEMBERITEMMIN. NO. REFERS NO DECLARATIONS WERE MADE - 473 -
