CONSTITUTION WORKING PARTY
Minutes of a meeting of the Constitution Working Party held on 15 November 2012 in
Meeting Room 1, Council Offices, Holt Road, Cromer at 2.00 pm.
Members Present:
Working Party:
Officers in
Attendance:
1
Mrs A Fitch-Tillett, Ms V R Gay, Mr K E Johnson, and Mrs H
Thompson.
The Interim Monitoring Officer and the Democratic Services Officer
TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Mrs A Moore.
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MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on 22 August 2012 were approved as a correct
record.
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ITEMS OF URGENT BUSINESS
None
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
All Members declared a non-pecuniary interest in the Constitution.
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REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION
The Chairman thanked the Monitoring Officer and the Democratic Services Officer for
their hard work in compiling the amended version of the constitution. She then asked
the Monitoring Officer to outline the proposed changes.
The Monitoring Officer explained that several aspects of the constitution required
updating due to changes in the law, the structure of the council (including titles and
roles) and the enactment of the Localism Act and the new Executive Arrangements.
Following a period of consultation, several comments had been received from
members of staff. All of them had been accepted and they would be incorporated into
the new version.
Telephones and electronic equipment
The use of electronic equipment and recording during meetings had been raised at
the last meeting of the Constitution Working Party. The aim of the original section in
the constitution had been to ensure that meetings were not interrupted and that there
was no recording without consent. With many Members wanting to use tablets and
electronic devices during meetings to access their agendas, there was now an
additional need to review this part of the constitution. The Monitoring Officer advised
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that to limit disturbances during meetings, telephone calls should not be allowed. It
would be better to state that telephones and electronic devices should not be used to
cause a disturbance.
Mrs A Fitch-Tillett said that she felt that the suggested wording in section 20.3 was
sufficient and self-explanatory and should apply across the board. Ms V Gay
commented that the wording made it seem as though it was the duty of the Chairman
to ensure that Members complied rather than members themselves. The Chairman
agreed that the wording regarding telephones and electronic devices should be
standardised throughout the constitution. The Monitoring Officer said that the
provision applied to members at the moment and not to the public. He suggested that
it was amended to cover everyone present at the meeting.
The Chairman suggested that the Working Party worked through the constitution in
sequence to ensure that every aspect was covered:
Election of Vice-chairman
Mrs A Moore had queried the lack of provision in the constitution for the election of a
vice-chairman of the Council. Mr K Johnson added that reference should be made to
the vice-chairman taking over the responsibilities of the Chairman in their absence.
Responsibility and delegation of functions (Chapter 2, section 4.1)
Mrs A Fitch-Tillett said that she felt this section needed more detail. The Monitoring
Officer agreed to provide more clarity regarding the delegation of functions.
Policy Framework
Ms V Gay commented that several policies were not included in this section including
the Health Strategy, the Sports and Leisure Strategy and the Coastal Strategy. The
Monitoring Officer said that the policies and strategies in this section were approved
by Full Council. There were some additional strategies that could be approved by
Cabinet and he would update this section to reflect that.
Opposition Business
Ms V Gay sought clarity on the requirement to provide 10 clear days notice of an item
of opposition business. She felt that working days would be clearer and this should
be consistent throughout the constitution. The Monitoring Officer said that he was not
sure of the purpose of the provision for opposition business as any member could
propose a motion. Ms Gay said that she was reluctant to remove it and would like
more time to consider its value and discuss options with her political group. The
Monitoring Officer agreed. He added that the notice period for motions was 6 clear
days. Ms Gay replied that it would be preferable to have 10 working days notice
throughout the constitution.
AGREED
To change the notice period to 10 working days throughout the constitution, except
where there was a statutory requirement for a different notice period.
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Members’ questions
Ms V Gay asked whether there was any provision within the constitution for
Members’ questions. Mr D Johnson referred her to the examples included within the
agenda which outlined the provisions at several other local councils. The Chief
Executive had expressed a preference for example 1. It was agreed that this would
be the most suitable. The Monitoring Officer said that he would adapt it to meet the
needs of North Norfolk District Council.
AGREED
To use Example 1 within the report as a basis for establishing provisions for
Members questions within the constitution.
Chapter 3 - The Executive
Mrs A Fitch –Tillett pointed out that there was an inconsistency with the Leader
‘appoints’ and the Leader ‘proposes’.
Mr K Johnson requested that the question marks were removed from the Cabinet
Procedure Rules.
Chapter 4 – Overview and Scrutiny
A recommendation had been received from the Overview and Scrutiny Task and
Finish Group – Scrutiny Committee Work Programme: ‘that the Constitution be
reviewed to accommodate any agreed changes from these proposals’. The
Monitoring Officer advised that the issues seemed to relate to the timetabling of
meetings and this was not something that was covered by the constitution. Ms V Gay
asked if any of the recommendations impacted on the Constitution. The Democratic
Services Officer replied that the scheduling of meetings was not covered by the
constitution and that the annual programme of meetings was due to go to Full
Council for approval in December 2012 so there would be an opportunity then for
further comments.
The Monitoring Officer concluded by saying that he believed it was the decision of
the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to decide how the committee operated.
Chapter 5 - Committees
The role of the Employment Committee was queried. It had been convened in
January 2012 but 5 members had been appointed rather than three referred to in the
Constitution. The Monitoring Officer said he would look into it.
Mrs A Fitch-Tillett asked about the Appeals Committee and whether its role and the
membership could be clarified. The Democratic Services Officer confirmed that the
Appeals Committee was the same as the Judicial Board which was made up of
Licensing Committee members. It had not met for at least 2 years. The Monitoring
Officer said that he would check the terms of reference of this committee, in
particular the reference to the Highways Act 1980.
Mr K Johnson sought clarification on the use of recorded votes and in particular
whether the constitution could state that a request for a recorded vote must be made
before the vote was taken. The Monitoring Officer replied that he believed that a
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request for a recorded vote could take place after the vote was taken and that this
was a statutory requirement.
Chapter 6 – Officers
The Monitoring Officer agreed to check all the staff titles referred to in this section to
ensure they were up to date.
Chapter 7 – Ethical Governance
Ms V Gay asked whether the Code of Conduct was up to date. The Monitoring
Officer confirmed that it was and said that the arrangements for dealing with
standards allegations would be included together with the appointment process for
the Independent Person.
Chapter 8 – Access to Information Procedure Rules
Ms V Gay sought clarification on section 24 of the Access to Information Procedure
Rules – ‘Additional rights of access for Members’. She said that she had always been
informed that Members could see anything that they wanted to but the use of the
word ‘unless’ in this section implied that it was a privilege rather than a right. The
Monitoring Officer explained that Members had extended rights but that these
stopped at common law level and were on a ‘need to know’ basis. The threshold was
low but a Member would need to justify why they needed to access a particular piece
of information. He said that he would re-write this section so that it corresponded
more closely with the County Council’s Access to Information Procedure Rules which
had recently been updated.
The Democratic Services Officer queried whether section 23 which related to the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s Access to Documents reflected the changes
implemented by the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and
Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012. The Monitoring Officer agreed to
check this.
Chapter 9 – Rules, Codes and Protocols
The Monitoring Officer said that he intended to discuss any changes to the financial
protocols further with the Head of Finance as she had requested some amendments.
It was likely that some of the financial thresholds would be adjusted.
Chapter 10 – Officer Employment Procedure Rules
Mr K Johnson highlighted the reference to the Employment Committee and that this
would need amending if the terms of the Committee were altered.
Chapter 12 – Partnership arrangements and Outside Bodies
Mrs A Fitch-Tillett asked why wellbeing had been removed from this section. The
Monitoring Officer explained that it was no longer a statutory responsibility for District
Councils.
Ms V Gay queried whether the list of Outside Bodies needed to be included within
the Constitution as it was frequently amended. The Monitoring Officer said that it did
not. The Democratic Services Officer suggested that it could be published on the
council’s website and updated when required. Following a further query regarding the
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index to the constitution, the Democratic Services Officer confirmed that it was
possible to put links from the index to the main document on the web version.
The meeting closed at 3.38 pm.
Chairman
Constitution Working Party
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15 November 2012