Agenda and minutes

Extraordinary, Governance & Audit Committee - Wednesday, 2nd September, 2015 7.00 pm

Venue: Council Chamber, Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent. View directions

Contact: James Clapson 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from the Chairman Councillor Munday, therefore the Vice-Chairman Councillor Buckley was in the Chair.

 

Apologies were also received from Councillors; Campbell, Day and Larkins for whom Councillors; Fenner, Taylor-Smith and Jaye-Jones were present as substitutes respectively.

2.

Declarations of Interest

'To receive any declarations of interest.  Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest Form attached at the back of this Agenda.  If a Member declares an interest, they should complete that form and hand it to the Officer clerking the meeting and then take the prescribed course of action.'

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

3.

Draft Annual Governance Statement pdf icon PDF 134 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Tim Howes, Head of Legal and Democratic Services, introduced the report and noted that the item had two elements for Members’ consideration and decision. The first was the Draft Annual Governance Statement 14/15, and the second was the Draft Audit Committee Assurance Statement.

 

Mr Howes highlighted that the first sentence of the first bullet point at section 4.1.7 of the Statement should stop after the words ‘proper management of the council’s finances’.

 

Councillor Collins asked a number of questions regarding the Compulsory Purchase Order of Manston Airport which Mr Howes offered to respond to outside of the meeting.

 

In response to questions and comments from Members it was noted that:

 

  • currently the code of conduct for officers and Members was published on the website within the Constitution document, however if it was published separately these protocols would be easier to find for members of the public.
  • work needed to be carried out to update the website pages and make the information more accessible to the public.

 

Subject to the amendment at 4.1.7 of the Statement, it was proposed by Councillor I Gregory, seconded by Councillor Dexter, and Members agreed the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2014/15

 

Mr Howes advised that the Audit Committee Assurance Statement was a backward looking statement that responded to questions raised by the Grant Thornton UK LLP, the Council’s external auditors.

 

It was proposed by Councillor Jaye-Jones, seconded by Councillor I Gregory, and Members agreed to note and endorse the responses to the letter from the external auditor.