Agenda and minutes

Outside Organisations Sub-Committee - Tuesday, 28th February, 2012 10.30 am

Venue: East Committee Room - Municipal Buildings, Earle Street, Crewe, CW1 2BJ. View directions

Contact: Cherry Foreman Democratic Services Officer

Items
No.	Item
29.	Apologies for Absence View the background to item 29. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Baxendale and B Moran.
30.	Declarations of Interest View the background to item 30. To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests in any item on the agenda. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest.
31.	Public Speaking Time/Open Session View the background to item 31. In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Sub-Committee on any matter relevant to its work. Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged. Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given. Minutes: There were no members of the public present.
32.	Minutes of Previous meeting PDF 47 KB View the background to item 32. To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 23 November 2012. Minutes: RESOLVED That the minutes of the meeting held on 23 November 2011 be approved as a correct record.
33.	Review of Councillor Representation - Phase 1 PDF 60 KB View the background to item 33. To consider the responses received to the survey letter sent out as Phase 1 (Tranches 1 & 2) of the review of representation on Outside Organisations. Additional documents: Record of responses received phase 1App 1 , item 33. PDF 47 KB Minutes: Consideration was given to the responses received to the first phase of the review being carried out by the Sub-Committee into the appropriateness of Councillor representation on those outside organisations to which it appointed. The responses from individual Councillors had been collated and circulated for information. In addition information request forms sent out to all organisations at the time the appointments had been made were also circulated; a schedule of the responses received formed an Appendix to the report. It was recognised that the Constitution for some organisations specified that there should be Councillor representatives attending its meetings and there was little that could be done to change that. In some cases there was room for interpretation as to whether the appointments could be made by a Town or Parish Council instead a number of organisations had been referred in this way at an earlier stage of the review. In considering the range of organisations and the responses received the Sub-Committee formed a principle that if the organisation was actually a Cheshire East establishment, run by Cheshire East staff, then it was not truly an outside organisation. In such cases a better arrangement would be to have, for example, a User Panel; this would enable a wider cross section of representatives and users to be involved and Councillors/Portfolio Holders could be invited as and when necessary. In applying this principle it was agreed that the Alsager Leisure Centre Advisory User Panel be removed from the list of organisations. The Sub-Committee expressed concern that in a minority of cases either a Councillor or an organisation had not responded to the request for information; also in some cases no meetings had been held since the appointments had been made in June 2011. In both instances it was requested that, on behalf of the Sub-Committee, the Democratic Services Officer write to the Councillors and the organisations concerned to find out if there was a particular reason why they had not been able to respond and also asking if they still wished to be the representative or still required Councillor representatives; also in the case of the organisations where there had not been any meetings to try and ascertain the reason. RESOLVED 1. That Alsager Leisure Centre be removed from the list of Outside Organisations. 2. That further enquiries be made to non responding Councillors and Organisations to ascertain the reasons for the lack of a reply, whether the Councillor concerned still wished to be appointed to that organisation and whether Councillor representation was still required.
34.	Sub-Committee Work Programme PDF 42 KB View the background to item 34. To consider the ongoing work programme and in particular Phase 2 of the review. Attached is the work programme and the overall plan of the review. Additional documents: Review of representation overall prog , item 34. PDF 49 KB Minutes: In considering the next phase of the review it was agreed that Tranches 3 and 4 of the list should be surveyed. For the information requested from the organisation it was agreed that question 3 ‘How many meetings are held each year?’ should be expanded to include ‘Please supply the dates of meetings held since June 2011’ and ‘Were the Councillor representatives invited?’ Also that an additional question be added to ask if any Cheshire East Officers attend. RESOLVED 1. That for Phase 2 of the review tranches 3 and 4 of the list be surveyed using the amended questions detailed in the body of this minute. 2. That the provisional meeting date previously agreed for 3 May 2012 be confirmed.