Issue - meetings

That the proposed changes to the guidance be welcomed.

The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained that the Protocol for Members in their Dealings with Contractors/Developers and Other Third Parties provided advice to them on how to avoid inadvertently compromising required levels of impartiality and transparency required of them and the Council when awarding contracts or considering planning applications.

The protocol was due for review as part of the Committee’s rolling programme of reviewing the Constitution.  The periodic refresh of the protocol was an opportunity to check that the document remained up to date.

The guidance on dealing with potential contractors remained necessary and needed only minor updates.  The guidance on dealing with developers did need updating.  However, in addressing those matters the protocol overlapped with the Planning Code of Guidance.  It would be better if the protocol did not seek to duplicate advice given elsewhere and the parts of the document relating to planning should be removed and the Planning Code of Guidance be updated instead.

In response to a question from Julia Hughes, the Monitoring Officer explained that information on Members declaring if they had been spoken to four or more times would be expanded upon when the Planning Code of Guidance was submitted to Standards Committee.  In response to a further question, the Monitoring Officer said the Members Code of Conduct had not been changed, but he had made the wording in 2.3 clearer.

Julia Hughes asked if the Gifts and Hospitality Policy should be referred to Standards Committee.  The Monitoring Officer explained that there was no such Policy, the obligations for declaring gifts and hospitality were outlined in the Members Code of Conduct.

Councillor Johnson explained the difficulties that sometimes occurred when being contacted by developers in relation to planning applications and the rights of the Members in requesting Committee determination should be protected.

In response to a question from Rob Dewey, the Monitoring Officer said the following officers should be recorded in section 5.6 of the protocol: Chief Executive, Section 151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and Deputy Monitoring Officer.

The protocol would be updated and report to Planning Strategy Group before coming back to Standards Committee. 

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the parts of the Protocol for Members in their Dealings with Contractors/Developers and Other Third Parties relating to dealings with parties who might be bidding for or seeking a contract with the Council be amended as shown in the appendix and as shown above; and

(b)       That the parts of the Protocol for Members in their Dealings with Contractors/Developers and Other Third Parties relating to Planning be transferred to the Planning Code of Guidance (to the extent that they are not already incorporated therein) and that the Planning Code of Guidance be updated.