Agenda item

To recommend adoption of the ordinary language guide and updated Constitution, following the work undertaken by the working group.

 

(a)       That the Committee recommends to Council that the draft amended

Constitution should be adopted subject to a further internal consistency

check and proof-read;

 

(b)       That the role descriptions in the draft Model Constitution should be the

subject to consultation with relevant Members before the Constitution is

adopted at the Annual General Meeting; and

 

(c)       That the ordinary language guide be adopted subject to a final document

and cross reference comparison with the draft Constitution to ensure

accuracy and consistency between those documents.

 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer presented a report to recommend adoption of the ordinary language guide and updated Constitution following the work undertaken by a working group of the Committee.  He provided background information and referred to the key points as detailed in the report.  The Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that a first draft of both the constitution and the ordinary language guide were appended to the report. The changes that the working group proposed should be made to the Council’s constitution were shown as tracked changes but some further drafting work would need to be undertaken before the documents could be adopted by the Council.

 

Councillor Bernie Attridge drew attention to a number of corrections which he said needed to be made to update the draft Constitution with regard to other matters.  He  also sought information on where  reference  was made to CJCs in the Constitution.  The Deputy Monitoring Officer responded the points raised by  Councillor Attridge.  The Monitoring Officer and Deputy Monitoring Officer also provided background information regarding the question on CJCs and explained that those which were specific to the Council would be included in the Constitution in due course. 

 

Councillor Alasdair Ibbotson proposed the recommendation that the Committee gives feedback to Council on the proposed changes made and brings back to the working group to produce a further draft.   Councillor Ibbotson suggested that the following changes be made to the Constitution:

 

Page 24 - Members of the public – making comments/complaints

Why has engagement with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee been deleted?

 

Page 27 - Functions of the Full Council

4.6.15 – redundant

4.6.16 – redundant 

 

 

Page 28 - Functions of the Full Council

4.6.21 a), b) – prevents Overview and Scrutiny Committees doing this because of top

language

4.6.19 – as above regarding Overview and Scrutiny Committees

 

Page 46 - Electronic broadcast of meetings

21 – date is missing for how many days after a meeting copies will be available

 

Page 59 - The Cabinet - Leader

5.3 – The leader shall be one OF the Council’s representatives on: …

 

Page 60 - Job sharing by Cabinet members

5.5 – who is able to make individual Cabinet member decisions? Must these be made jointly, or by either member individually?

 

Page 64 - Cabinet meetings, when and where

5.9.6 – determination of choice?

 

Page 261 - Officer structure chart

Incomplete, no structure chart included

 

Page 277 - Responsibility for Council functions table

Highlighted part – appears to be a note when amending the document, should be removed?

 

Page 299 - Information sharing principles

B – “timely” ONLY applies in certain circumstances

 

Page 341 - Responsibility of Chief Officers

Powers to require senior officers to register interests and scrutinise those interests?

 

Page 582 - Trade Union Representation, concerns regarding behaviour

4.14 – delete ‘recognised’ prior to Trade Union

 

Page 602 - Elected members role description

1.2 a) ii) and iv) – delete

 

Page 603 - Elected members, values

1.3 – delete

 

Page 606 - Leader, values

2.3 – not essential to delete

Cabinet member, values

4.3 – as above

 

Councillor Ibbotson proposed that his comments and amendments be submitted to the Working Group and further consideration be given to the draft Constitution. This was seconded by Councillor Bernie Attridge.

 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer responded to the points made by Councillor Ibbotson and advised that there were no changes in the tracked document attached to the report which altered any of the rules, procedures and processes that the Council currently had in terms of scrutiny or debate.  The Deputy Monitoring Officer said all the matters raised by Councillor Ibbotson would be considered in producing a further draft of the Constitution.  The Monitoring Officer explained that some of the sections raised by Councillor Ibbotson were not matters that the Working Group had recommended for change and therefore the questions and points made were regarding the current Constitution which was beyond the scope of the current exercise. 

 

The Monitoring Officer suggested that the Committee may  wish to adopt the proposed changes and provide a list of areas which might require further work/review.  He said that those matters which were identified by Councillor Ibbotson which applied to the changes that were being proposed and anything which had not been recommended by the Working Group for review could be included on the Forward Work Programme.

 

In summing up Councillor Ibbotson expressed concern that the Council was in breach of the statutory obligation placed on it by the Local Government and Elections Act 2021 and the commencement regulations.  He said he supported the Plain Language guide as being compliant with the statutory obligations.  Speaking on the review of the Constitution, Councillor Ibbotson proposed that the substantive constitutional changes which were to be recommended to Council be re-submitted to the Working Group with feedback from the Constitution and Democratic Services Committee for further consideration.  The Working group be asked to produce a second draft of the proposed amendments to the Constitution and report back to the Committee for further consideration. 

 

Councillor Ted Palmer proposed an amendment to the proposal made by Councillor Ibbotson.  He proposed that the recommendations in the report be approved and the concerns raised by Councillor Ibbotson be added to the Forward Work Programme for further consideration.  This was seconded by Councillor Ian Hodge.

 

Councillor Bernie Attridge spoke against the amendment.

 

Councillor Ibbotson clarified that the Committee was being asked to vote on his motion unamended which was that the actual changes to the Constitution be submitted for further review by Members and officers and brought back to the Committee for further consideration and recommendation to Council.  He said if the Committee supported the amendment put forward to the proposal by Councillor Ted Palmer no further work would be undertaken on the internal review of the Constitution and the Committee would recommend to Council that the draft amended constitution should be adopted

 

At this point the Monitoring Officer provided clarification to the Committee on the proposal by Councillor Ibbotson and the amendment to the proposal put forward by Councillor Palmer.

 

The Committee were asked to vote on the amendment proposed by Councillor Ted Palmer which was that the Committee forwarded to Council what had been considered by the Working Group and remit the remainder back to the Working Group for further review.  When put to the vote the amendment was lost.

 

The Monitoring Officer explained that the Committee was asked to vote on the proposal put forward by Councillor Ibbotson to remit the proposed changes back to the Working Group to enable them to consider his concerns about the changes which were proposed and also the issues that he felt might require review concerning the parts that were not proposed for change.  The proposal had been seconded by Councillor Bernie Attridge.  When put to the vote the proposal was carried that the Committee recommends to Council that the draft amended constitution should be adopted subject to a further internal consistency check and proof-read.

 

Councillor Bernie Attridge moved recommendations (b) and (c) in the report.  This was seconded by Councillor Ted Palmer and when put to the vote was carried

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)       That the Committee recommends to Council that the draft amended

Constitution should be adopted subject to a further internal consistency

check and proof-read;

 

(b)       That the role descriptions in the draft Model Constitution should be the

subject to consultation with relevant Members before the Constitution is

adopted at the Annual General Meeting; and

 

(c)       That the ordinary language guide be adopted subject to a final document

and cross reference comparison with the draft Constitution to ensure

accuracy and consistency between those documents.