Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent

Contact: Anona Somasundaram 

Items
No. Item

31.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Wright and Mrs Bacon.

32.

Declarations of Interests

To receive any declarations of interests.  Members are advised to consider the extract from the Standard Board Code of Conduct for Members, which forms part of the Declaration of Interest Form 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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interests.

33.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 99 KB

To approve the Minutes of the Constitutional Review Working Party meeting held on 13 March 2014, copy attached.

Minutes:

On the proposal of Councillor Nicholson, seconded by Councillor Hayton, it was AGREED that the minutes of the meeting of the Constitutional Review Working Party held on 13 March 2014 be approved and signed by the Chairman.

34.

Possible Review of Council Procedure Rules, Particularly in Relation to Opportunities for Backbench Members' Participation at Meetings of Full Council pdf icon PDF 71 KB

  • View the background to item 34.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Upon consideration of the report, Working Party members made points and suggestions as follows:

 

1.  The review in question should only take place in the wider context of the recent Peer Review or following the district council elections in 2015.

 

2.  Adoption of options could:

 

a)  result in longer meetings of the Council – it was noted that paragraph 7.3 of Annex 1 suggested that Council meetings in Thanet were already longer than those of neighbouring councils.

 

b)  have an adverse effect on resource implications, as per paragraph 3.1.2 of the report.

 

3.  The former practice of receiving written reports from the Chairman of Scrutiny at each of the ordinary meetings of full Council, should be re-introduced, providing that such reports were for information only and not subject to debate.

 

4.  As indicated by the list at paragraph 4 of Annex 1, backbench Members already had ample opportunity to take part in meetings of full Council.  Additionally, they were able to speak under Council Procedure Rule 24.1 at meetings of the executive, committees, boards and panels.

 

It was proposed by Councillor Nicholson, seconded by Councillor Hayton and AGREED:

 

1.  TO RECOMMEND to Standards Committee:

 

a)  THAT no change to the Council Procedure Rules affecting Members’ participation at meetings of full council is made at the present time;

 

b)  THAT a written report for information be received at each ordinary meeting of Council from the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel, providing that such reports were not open for debate.

 

2.  THAT, prior to submitting recommendations at No. 1 above to the Standards Committee, a report be brought to the  Working Party, outlining the necessary constitutional changes.

 

It was FURTHER AGREED, on the proposal of Councillor Watkins, seconded by Councillor Hayton:

 

THAT officers review the current practice of enabling debate at meetings of full Council on reports back that are purely “for information” relating to petitions and motions on notice, and bring a report to the next meeting of the Working Party.