Issue - meetings

To receive the recommendations of the Governance and Constitution Committee.

Consideration was given to the report to and recommendations of the Governance and Constitution Committee, which met earlier in the day, in respect of proposed changes to the Council's Committee Structure, the minutes of which were circulated at the meeting.

RESOLVED

(1)   That a new Audit and Governance Committee be established, with the powers and functions set out in Appendix B of the report, as submitted to Council(together with the expanded responsibility at paragraph 4 of the report, as recommended by the Governance and Constitution Committee), (as attached to these minutes) and with an allocation of seats to the political groups of 7:2:1:0 (Conservative: Liberal Democrat: Labour: Independent), this being achieved by the deletion of the Labour Group’s seat on the Lay Member Appointments Committee;

(2)   That the Leaders of the Political Groups, as appropriate, notify the Borough Solicitor of their nominations to the Audit and Governance Committee.

(3)   That a Constitution Committee be established to replace the existing Governance and Constitution Committee, with the powers and functions set out in Appendix C of the report, (as attached to these minutes) and with the same allocation of seats to the political groups as the existing Governance and Constitution Committee.

(4)   That the Constitution Committee shall retain the membership and current schedule of meetings of the existing Governance and Constitution Committee as agreed by Council, subject to any changes of meeting dates agreed by the Chairman.

(5)   That the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee be elected by the Committee at its first meeting, which shall be arranged to take place on a date to be agreed by the Democratic Services Manager, in consultation with  the Leaders of the Political Groups.

(6)   That the political group representation in respect of the Council’s ordinary committees, as agreed by Council at its annual meeting, be amended in accordance with these proposals, resulting in a new proportional entitlement of seats as follows:

       New                                 131                 27                    13                    9

       Proportional                    (72.8%)          (14.8%)          (7.4%)             (5%)

       Entitlement

(7)   That the Borough Solicitor be authorised to make such changes to the Constitution as he considers necessary, to give effect to the wishes of Council.