Agenda and minutes

The Chair ( Mrs Sue Toland) welcomed everyone to the hearing.

The Clerk drew attention to the Emergency Evacuation Procedure.

Apologies had been received from Dr Cyril Davies (Independent member)

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Malcolm Lees declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he arranged an insurance policy for the subject councillor’s company. Councillor Eleanor Jackson declared a non-pecuniary interest in her role as Chair of the Task and Finish Group on river dwellers whose remit was confined to boats as dwellings and had nothing do to do moorings. Councillor Sarah Bevan declared a non-pecuniary interest relating to her membership of the River Trust.  

There was none. The Chair reminded the Members of the need for observing strict confidentiality in their dealings with these hearings.

There were none.

There were none.

The minutes were agreed as a correct record.

The Committee will, in the first instance, consider the Public Interest Test (Appendix 1) as to whether the press and public should be excluded for this item.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report which detailed a complaint that Councillor X had breached the Code of Conduct.  

The Chair asked the Committee, with reference to Appendix 1 of the report (exclusion of access by the public to Council meetings), whether they wished the complaint to be heard in private session. On a proposal by Councillor Lees, seconded by Parish Councillor Axel Palmer, it was agreed that hearing would be heard in private.  

The Committee further agreed that the hearing process would follow the Local Hearings Procedure.

Following the hearing, the Committee adjourned to make its decision. The Committee then re-convened and the Chair announced the decision in the presence of the complainant and Councillor X.

Decision

The Standards Committee has carefully considered all the information provided by the complainant and Councillor X. The Committee has concluded that, in the interests of fairness, the complaint would benefit from an independent investigation and report into the allegations. It therefore asks the Monitoring Officer to arrange an investigation and report back to the Committee by the end of March 2013.