Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Piper was elected Chairman of the Memorials Working Party.

Apologies were received from Councillor Pat Moore.

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest advice attached to this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete the Declaration of Interest Form

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

Mr Howes introduced his report and the background to the matter.

It was agreed that this was a difficult and sensitive matter and that it would be helpful to receive representations from groups which represented persons with characteristics which were protected by the Equality Act 2010.

All requests for a review of a particular memorial etc. would be considered against the Public Sector Equality Duty however the judgement of the decision maker should be fully informed.

The role of the Working party is to recommend to the Overview and Scrutiny Panel a procedure for responding to public issues/complaints which is compliant with our legal obligations.

It was difficult to consider a process without looking at a real example. The only current example relates to the plaque in Broadstairs. However it is not the role of the Working Party to decide how to respond in that particular example, just to see how a process would apply to such a real example.

It was agreed that:

(i)  Mr Howes would contact the groups and individuals suggested by Cllrs Rawf and Wing to provide written representations on the process for considering memorials and be invited to attend the next meeting of the working party in person.

(ii)  The Public Sector Equality Duty would be a principal consideration in considering requests for action in respect of memorials etc. Persons making a request for action should therefore be asked to explain how they considered that a memorial breached the PSED, so the decision maker could take that view into account.

(iii)  The council did not have the resources to review all such memorials etc. The council would respond on a reactive rather than a proactive basis.