Agenda and minutes

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no formal Mayor’s Announcements, this being a special meeting of the Council. However, as this was the last meeting of the Council for those Members not standing in the forthcoming elections, the Mayor took the opportunity to thank those Members for the service that they had provided to the Council over the years. She also wished those Members standing in the forthcoming elections well. As this would be her last meeting as Mayor, she thanked all Members for their support and she also thanked those members of the public who had spoken under public speaking time during her time as Mayor.

In accordance with paragraph 1.32 of the Council Procedure Rules and Appendix 7 to the rules, a total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to speak at Council meetings. 

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman 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 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. It is not a requirement to give notice of the intention to make use of public speaking provision. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours notice is encouraged.

Mrs Sue Helliwell spoke in respect of item 4 of the agenda, Notices of Motion,  the Council's Governance Arrangements.

To consider the content set out in the report in relation to the Notices of Motion submitted in respect of the Council's Governance Arrangements.

At the Council meeting held on 13 December 2018, the following Notices of Motion were referred to a special meeting of Council for determination: -

A.    This Council requests that a comparative analysis be published to enable a special meeting of Council, to be held in February 2019, or as soon as possible thereafter, to discuss and debate changing to a committee system form of governance. - Proposed by Councillor James Nicholas and Seconded by Councillor Craig Browne.

B.    This Council agrees to allocate all chairs of Overview and Scrutiny Committees to opposition members as soon as practicable. - Proposed by Councillor Craig Browne and Seconded by Councillor Arthur Moran.

C.    This Council agrees to allocate all remaining committee chairs across the political groups in line with the principle of proportionality. - Proposed by Councillor Arthur Moran and Seconded by Councillor Bernice Walmsley

The Mayor explained the procedure that she proposed to follow for this item.

Prior to the debate on each Notice of Motion, each of the Notices of Motion would be introduced by the Lead Member responsible for their submission. That Lead Member would be allowed an extended speaking time, in support of that Notice of Motion, of 10 minutes. Whilst speaking, the Lead Member would be expected to make a formal proposal to the meeting, which would need to be seconded, prior to being debated and then voted upon. All other speakers would be allowed the usual period of time of 5 minutes to speak on each Notice of Motion. Each Notice of Motion would be subject to the usual rules of debate.

It was queried whether it would be appropriate for Cabinet Members to take part in the debate on the Notices of Motion. The Acting Director of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer advised that there was no interest which would preclude Cabinet Members from taking part in the debate.

Notice of Motion A

With regard to Notice of MotionA, the following motion was proposed and seconded:-

“This Council resolves to change to a committee system form of governance with effect from the 2020/21 Municipal Year”.

Following debate, a requisition for a named vote was submitted and duly supported. The motion was put to the meeting with the following results:-

For

Councillors C Andrew, S Brookfield, C Browne, B Burkhill, P Butterill, S Carter, S Corcoran, I Faseyi, R Fletcher, D Flude, T Fox, M Hardy, A Harewood, S Hogben,  D Hough, L Jeuda, D Mahon, S McGrory, A Moran, J Nicholas, M Parsons, J Rhodes, B Roberts, A Stott and B Walmsley .

Against

Councillors A Arnold, G Baggott, Rachel Bailey, Rhoda Bailey, G Barton, P Bates, M Beanland, D Bebbington, E Brooks, D Brown, J Clowes, H Davenport, S Davies, M Deakin, T Dean, L Durham, S Edgar, JP Findlow, S Gardiner, S Gardner, L Gilbert, C Green, P Groves, G Hayes, D Marren, A Martin, R Menlove, G  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70.