Agenda item

Consideration was given to a number of recommendations from the Constitution Committee, as follows :-

(a) Re-organisation of Community Governance (Crewe) Order 2012 and Mini Review of Electoral Arrangements for the Parish of Leighton 

 

           At its meeting on 11^th October 2012, Council had agreed that the draft Re-Organisation of Community Governance Order for Crewe be updated and submitted to Council on 13 December, following a mini review of electoral arrangements for the Parish of Leighton. In the light of the decision of Council on 11^th October, which dealt with all other community governance arrangements for Crewe, all that remained to be decided were the arrangements for the area of Leighton and the final approval of the Reorganisation Order to give effect to the Council’s decisions. 

 

            The Constitution Committee had reviewed when elections for the Leighton Parish Urban ward should be held and whether the number of Councillors for the parish should be amended. In respect of the area of Leighton, the Committee made a number of recommendations to Council.

 

           RESOLVED

 

           That :-

 

1.    the change to the boundary of the Leighton Parish take effect from 1^st April 2013;

 

2.    no parish elections be held until 2015 but Cheshire East Council take steps to advertise the current vacancies on the Parish Council;

 

3.    the number of Parish Councillors for Leighton remain unchanged at the present time but the number be reviewed when Cheshire East Council conducts its community governance review of parish councils;

 

4.    accordingly, paragraph 10 of the draft order be retained in its present form; and

 

5.    the draft Re-Organisation order, as appended to the report to the Constitution Committee, at Appendix A, be approved.  

     

 

(b) Notice of Motion - Motions to Council 

 

At the Council meeting on 19^th July 2012, the following motion was proposed by Councillor Arthur Moran and was seconded by Councillor David Brickhill: -

 

“That all motions that are referred by Council to a Committee or Cabinet must be put on the agenda of the next meeting of that body or brought back to the next Council meeting for vote on a final decision.”

 

The Constitution Committee had considered the motion and made  recommendations to Council as to how Notices of Motion should be dealt with. The recommendations were moved and seconded as follows :-

 

(1)That the Democratic and Registration Services Manager be a nominated recipient of Notices of Motion, in addition to the Monitoring Officer, in order to enable Members to lodge Notices of Motion when the Monitoring Officer is not available.

 

(2)Members should be permitted to submit Notices of Motion by email, and a hard copy signature of the Members in question should not be a requirement of the process.

 

(3)The wording of the Rules should be amended to make it clear that the full text of the notice of motion would be reproduced with the agenda papers for Council meetings.

 

(4)A Notice of Motion should be regarded as withdrawn:

 

prior to the Council meeting if an indication to this effect is given in writing to at least one of the above-named officers by the Member who submitted the Notice; or

 

at the Council meeting if oral notice to this effect is given by the Member who submitted the Notice; or

 

if the Notice of Motion is not moved and seconded at the meeting of Council.

 

(5)There should be no distinction in the Rules between executive and non-executive functions; there being just one Rule, which simply requires the motion in question to be referred to the relevant decision-making body, which will be announced at Council by the Mayor.

 

(6)That each motion should then be referred to the relevant decision-making body for determination, without the need for any reference back to Council except where:

 

arising from consideration of the motion, the Constitution Committee recommends to the Council a change to the Constitution; or

 

there is some other legal or Constitutional requirement for the matter to be referred back to Council.

 

(6)That, following the moving and seconding of the motion in question; the mover and seconder having been given the opportunity to speak, the motion should stand referred to the appropriate decision-making body without debate.

 

(7)That, unless the chairman of the appropriate decision-making body agreed there were good reasons not to do so, notices of motion must be referred to that body within two meeting cycles, and that the proposer of the motion would be consulted before the chairman decided the matter.

 

(8)That the existing provision be retained whereby the Mayor may determine that it is conducive to the despatch of business for a motion to be dealt with in full at the initial Council meeting.

 

(9)That no notice of motion which, in the opinion of the Mayor, deals with the  same or a similar matter to one which had come before Council during the previous 6 months, should be included on the Council agenda.

 

Amendment

 

The following amendment was moved and seconded and carried :-

 

“Whilst the Borough Solicitor will need to produce the detailed wording, the existing rules which allow 30 minutes for questions on notice to Cabinet members at Council meetings should be replaced by an alternative arrangement.  Notice of these questions would not need to be given in advance of the meeting.  The existing constitutional provisions which apply to questions on notice would continue to apply to the new arrangements eg questions should be clear and focussed; they should not be frivolous or derogatory; a single supplementary question which relates to the subject matter of the original question would be allowed etc.  In summary, whilst delegated authority would need to be given to the Borough Solicitor to finesse the wording of the Rules, the existing provisions relating to questions on notice would apply to the new provisions which apply to Cabinet members, except that there would be no requirement for notice to be given to Cabinet members.

The existing rule which allows for questions on notice to be put to Chairmen of Committees to remain”.

RESOLVED

That, subject to the above amendment, the recommendations from the Constitution Committee be approved.

 

(c) Notice of Motion - Right to Speak at Meetings 

 

At the Council meeting on 19^th July 2012, Councillor A Moran had proposed and Councillor P Edwards seconded the following motion:

 

“That visiting Members to all Cabinet meetings, Committees, and Sub-committees have the right to speak once on each separate item on the agenda before the debate proper commences.  This will apply to all items on the agenda, including Part II items”.

 

The current rules allowed any Member to attend any meeting and, with the consent of the Chairman, to speak on any matter on the agenda.  Special provisions applied to meetings of Licensing and Planning meetings.

 

The motion had been referred to the Constitution Committee for consideration. The Committee had considered the motion and recommended that no action be taken.

 

RESOLVED

 

That no action be taken.

 

(d) Notice of Motion - Start Time of Council Public Meetings 

 

On 12^th October 2012, Council had considered the following motion, which had been proposed by Councillor Brickhill and seconded by Councillor A Moran:

 

“That in view of the increasingly bad traffic congestion in the morning rush hours all this Council’s public meetings, which cause additional traffic to travel in these periods, should never start before 10am if held in Sandbach and not before 10.30am if held elsewhere”.

 

The motion had been referred to the Constitution Committee for consideration. The Committee had considered the motion and recommended that no action be taken.

 

RESOLVED

 

That no action be taken.

 

(e) Scheme of Members' Allowances: Report of the Independent

Remuneration Panel 

 

During 2012, the Independent Remuneration Panel had conducted a review of the Scheme of Members’ Allowances.

 

The Constitution Committee, at its meeting on 26th November, considered the report of the Panel, as appended to the report at Appendix D and recommended that the Panel’s recommendations be accepted by Council.

 

The recommendation from the Constitution Committee was moved and seconded.

 

Amendment

 

An amendment was proposed in respect of recommendation 3 of the Independent Remuneration Panel report, to require that there should be no retrospective payments to Local Service Delivery Committee Chairmen and Vice-chairmen. This was moved and seconded and carried.

RESOLVED

1.    That, subject to the above amendment, the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel be approved.

2.    That the Borough solicitor be authorised to make such changes to the Constitution as she considers are necessary, to give effect to the wishes of the Council in respect of all its resolutions relating to the recommendations of the Constitution Committee.

(At this point the meeting was adjourned for 10 Minutes).