Agenda item

This report invites the Council to consider its non-executive and regulatory committee arrangements for the Council year May 2015 – May 2016, and associated annual business.  It is anticipated that an update report will be issued prior to the meeting, in the light of discussions underway between political groups.

The Council considered a report on its non-executive and regulatory committee arrangements for the Council year May 2015 to May 2016.

Councillor Tim Warren moved the recommendations and, in so doing, outlined the Panels and Committees that were proposed, introduced the role of Member Advocate, explained the new Cabinet Assistant role and explained that he had decided to make appointments to his Cabinet, as follows;

·  Councillor Charles Gerrish  - Finance & Efficiency

·  Councillor Martin Veal  - Community Services

·  Councillor Vic Pritchard  - Adult Social Care & Health

·  Councillor Tony Clarke  - Transport

·  Councillor Marie Longstaff  - Homes & Planning

·  Councillor Michael Evans  - Children’s Services

·  Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones  - Economic Development

He outlined the ways in which they intended to deliver on their manifesto.  The proposal was seconded by Councillor Charles Gerrish and then

RESOLVED

1.  To approve a structure for non-executive and regulatory decision making, and the Scrutiny function as set out in the Constitution,  and identified in its current form in this report at Appendix 2, with the following amendments;

a.  the revised number of panels and remits as shown in the attached scrutiny remits document;

b.  the change of name from Development Control to Development Management committee;

c.  the revised political proportionality table and alterations to the number of seats as shown in the revised Appendix 1;

d.  the removal of the Restructuring Implementation Committee from the bodies in Appendix 2 being established at this meeting;

2.  To approve the terms of reference for Committees and Panels etc as set out in Appendix 2 to the report and constitute those bodies accordingly, with the necessary revisions arising from the decisions of this meeting;

3.  To approve the appointment of Members to the Committees and Panels in accordance with the requirements of political proportionality and the nominations made by the political groups as shown in revised Appendix 1;

4.  To appoint as Chairs of such bodies, those Councillors as may from time to time be nominated by the political group to whom the chairmanship of the body (as allocated in the revised Appendix 1);

5.  To authorise the Monitoring Officer to fill any casual vacancies in membership of all the bodies constituted and vacancy in the office of Chair of such bodies in accordance with the wishes of the political groups and the allocation of chairing entitlements made at this meeting;

6.  To agree that the bodies on which independent members are to have seats are as shown in the revised Appendix 1;

7.  To authorise the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Chairs of the Policy Development & Scrutiny Panels, to constitute and support any required Panel joint working as out lined in paragraph 6.1 of the report;

8.  To appoint members to Avon Fire Authority on a proportionality basis to be determined;

9.  To approve the allocation of Political Assistants to qualifying groups in accordance with section 8 of the report;

10.To instruct the Chief Executive, in consultation with Group Leaders, to make provision for support to the three remaining groups;

11.To approve the attached Planning Code of Conduct for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution as set out in paragraph 9 of the report;

12.To note, in light of the decision taken earlier on the agenda to appoint a Leader, that the Leader will publish in due course, a scheme of delegation of executive functions;

13.To note the position regarding the frequency of meetings (as set out in Section 10 of the report) as the basis for enabling the diary of meetings to be prepared, and to authorise the Monitoring Officer to project dates forward and prepare the diary on this basis;

14.To note that an Independent Panel to consider members’ allowances is being convened and will report its recommendations in due course;

15.To instruct the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with Group Leaders, to make appointments on non-executive outside bodies and note that the Leader or Cabinet Members will do so for executive outside bodies;

16.To authorise the Monitoring Officer to make and publicise any amendment to the Council’s Constitution required, or take any other necessary action, as a result of decisions taken at this meeting on this and other reports within the agenda, or otherwise as required by law.