Issue - meetings

Councillor Dave Wood, Deputy Council Leader (non-statutory) and Cabinet Member for Council Priorities & Delivery, introduced the item (officer support Cherry Bennett, Director of People and Change)

Panel members made the following points and asked the following questions:

Councillor Moss thanked the Cabinet Member and officer for including officers as well as Councillors. He asked if this item/work would be cascaded to Town and Parish Councils. The Cabinet Member explained that yes, it was being taken to the Parish Liaison meeting on 26^th June 2024.

Councillor Hounsell commented on the fact that the monitoring officer has indicated that he will be sympathetic to removing addresses from the register of interests but asked what ‘sympathetic’ means in practice and suggested that the default position be that addresses are not shown. The Cabinet Member stated that there has to be a compelling and specific reason within the current law and that he would prefer something more definitive.

Councillor Blackburn stated that previously Councillors have been able to give the party address but independents to not have that option. Councillor Moss explained that there are two matters – the address published as a contact on the website (which could be c/o Guildhall for example) and the declaration of an address on the register of interests which is public.

Councillor Simon (Co Chair of the Standards Committee) stated that the Monitoring Officer had been asked to consider a default position and he thinks that will be reasonable. He added that, in his last authority, the statement on the register of interests was ‘address within the borough as declared to the Monitoring Officer’. The Cabinet Member stated that the Monitoring Officer had to work within the current law.

Councillor Hodge commented that the list of incidents/events is not as systematic for Councillors as it is for officers. She also asked about the nominated officer for member wellbeing. The officer stated that there is a system for Health and Safety incidents, and we will be rolling out the use of the system for Councillors. She explained that there is a virtual briefing on this for Councillors in June and the nominated officer will be promoted.

Councillor Blackburn asked what work is being done to root out anonymous troll accounts (internal and external). The Cabinet Member acknowledged this point and stated that it would be taken away to discuss.

Councillor Simon stated that there used to be a shared index of people who were cautionary contacts that was used by officers and Councillors, has this now been affected by Data Protection issues. The officer agreed that GDPR rules had had an affect on lists such as this.

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member and officers.