Agenda and minutes

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests in any item on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos. 11 and 35 a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Sub-Committee on any matter relevant to its work.

It is not required 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.  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 should provide 3 clear working days’ notice, in writing, if they wish to ask a question at the meeting, in order for an informed answer to be given.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos. 11 and 35, a total period of 10 minutes was allocated for members of the public to address the Sub-Committee on any matter relevant to its work.

There were no members of the public present.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 September 2010.

RESOLVED

That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 September 2010 be approved as a correct record.

The enclosed report invites the Sub-Committee to consider various matters associated with appointments to outside organisations as follows –

o            remove from the schedule of outside organisations three which are currently listed and refer them to Council for appointment on the basis that they are internal, or shared services committees/panels;

o            consider appointments to casual vacancies;

o            review the Casual Vacancies Procedure which was approved by the former Governance and Constitution Committee;

o            review the appointments criteria and make any amendments necessary;

o            recommend to the Constitution Committee a procedure for adding new requests to the list of approved outside organisations;

o            consider two new requests;

o            note that the Guidance for Members Appointed to Outside Organisations has been finalised by Legal Services and issued to all Members;

o            note the procedure for making appointments for 2011-2012; and

o            note the update in respect of monitoring of effectiveness of representation on outside organisations.

The Sub-Committee considered a report which covered various matters associated with appointments to outside organisations as follows:

(a)       the removal from the schedule of outside organisations three organisations which were currently listed and refer them to Annual Council for appointment on the basis that they were internal, or shared services committees/panels;

(b)       appointments to casual vacancies;

(c)        review of the Casual Vacancies Procedure which had been approved by the former Governance and Constitution Committee;

(d)       review of the appointments criteria and make any amendments necessary;

(e)       recommend to the Constitution Committee a procedure for adding new requests to the list of approved outside organisations;

(f)         consider two new requests;

(g)       note that the Guidance for Members Appointed to Outside Organisations had been finalised by Legal Services and issued to all Members;

(h)        note progress in respect of Officer representation on outside organisations;

(j)         note the update in respect of monitoring of effectiveness of representation on outside organisations; and

(k)        approve the procedure for making appointments for 2011-2012.

9.1       Adoption Panel, Cheshire Admissions Forum, Fostering Panel

An Officer review of the schedule of outside organisations had been undertaken. As a consequence of that review, three organisations had been identified as not falling within the category of “outside organisation” (the Adoption Panel, Cheshire Admissions Forum and the Fostering Panel). The Sub-committee agreed that it would be more appropriate for Council to make appointments to these as part of the annual Committee appointments process.

9.2       Appointments to Casual Vacancies

There was a vacancy on Crewe and Nantwich Twinning Association (CANTA) following the resignation of Councillor E Howell. 

The Sub-Committee agreed that this vacancy should be dealt with as part of the appointments  process for 2011/2012.

Councillor Keegan was one of the Council’s representatives on The Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), but had been unable to attend meetings for some time. Councillor S Wilkinson had been attending on his behalf and to regularise the situation, the Sub-Committee agreed to make a formal nomination of Councillor Wilkinson to replace Councillor Keegan.

Councillors D N Bebbington, D J Cannon and A Thwaite had been appointed to Dial-a-Ride and Community Transport in March 2009.  At that time, it was understood that these two organisations were one organisation with two branches. However, following the appointments, information was received indicating that they were in fact two separately operated and funded organisations operating in Cheshire East. Dial-a-Ride covered Crewe, Nantwich and Congleton; and Community Transport covered Macclesfield.

The organisations advised that they would each prefer to have two elected Members appointed to them. This was accepted by the Governance and Constitution Committee on 30 September 2009, at which time, the Committee referred the matter to Cabinet recommending that both schemes be re-designated as Category 1 on the basis that they were top-level strategic organisations which informed the Local Transport Plan. Councillor J Macrae, as the Portfolio Holder, agreed to review the situation. 

Councillor Bebbington had recently resigned from Dial-a-Ride, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Members are invited to agree a date in April for the next meeting to enable recommendations on appointments for 2011-2012 to be submitted to the Constitution Committee on 2 June 2011.  

RESOLVED

That the next meeting of the Sub-Committee be held on 20 April 2011 at 10.00 am.