Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and they introduced themselves to the new Parish Representative.

The Chair drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out on the agenda.

Apologies were received from Tony Crouch.

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 Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair had agreed the Monitoring Officer could provide a short training session after the meeting.

There were none.

There were none.

If members wish to discuss the exempt minutes they will have to consider passing the following resolution:-

“that having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business and the reporting of the meeting be prevented under Section 100A(5A) because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended.”

Both sets of minutes were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Monitoring Officer reported that Councillor Pritchard had made an apology at Council as resolved at the last Standards Committee (Complaint 9.17 BaNES).

The Committee considered the Monitoring Officer’s report.  She updated the Committee on the current position, responded to a few queries and noted a couple of amendments to the appendix.

RESOLVED to note the report on the assessment of complaints.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the workplan.

RESOLVED to note the report.

The Chairman’s Civic Handbook will be circulated in due course.

The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained that the handbook had been created to set out the role and expected behaviour of the Chairman, ensuring there was less chance of misinterpretation.  She welcomed any comments from the Committee which should be forwarded to her.  The report would be submitted to Council at the AGM in May 2018.

RESOLVED that

(1)  Members forward any comments in respect of Standards in the Chairman’s Civic Handbook to the Monitoring Officer, as soon as possible but in time for consideration by May Council; and

(2)  the Committee recommend the Chairman’s Civic Handbook to Council.

The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained it was sensible to have a protocol for dealing with complaints relating to non-disclosure of pecuniary interests.  Once approved the next steps would be to discuss it with the police.  Members discussed a few scenarios when the protocol might be used and suggested a few minor amendments/enhancements which the Monitoring Officer agreed to implement.

As part of the discussion, the Monitoring Officer confirmed that appropriate arrangements would be in place for May 2018 when the General Data Processing Regulations took effect.

RESOLVED that the protocol between Bath and North East Somerset Council and Avon and Somerset Constabulary be approved.

The Code of Conduct scenarios had been circulated to members to consider.  The meeting took some time to discuss the answers to the scenarios.

The scenario answers would be circulated to members of the Committee.