Agenda item

This report invites the Council to consider its non-executive and regulatory committee arrangements for the Council year May 2023 to May 2024 and other associated annual business.  The Council is also required to formally undertake a statutory review of the political proportionality arrangements (as triggered under section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989) in respect of bodies that are required to be politically proportionate, following the recent local Council elections in May 2023, and this report addresses this.

On a motion from Councillor Kevin Guy, seconded by Councillor Robin Moss, it was

RESOLVED to

1.  Approve a structure for non-executive and regulatory decision making, and the scrutiny function as set out in the Constitution and as circulated to all Councillors in advance of the meeting (and appended to the minutes);

2.  Approve the terms of reference for Committees and Panels etc as set out in Appendix 2 to the report and constitute those bodies accordingly;

3.  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 (whilst noting the non-proportional basis of operating for the Licensing Sub-Committee as explained in paragraph 3.10 of the report);

4.  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 is allocated;

5.  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.  Agree the bodies on which independent co-opted members have seats as either voting or non-voting members and appoint those members accordingly (as set out in the political proportionality table appended to the minutes);

7.  Expressly disapply the proportionality rule to the Restructuring Implementation Committee (with no Councillor voting against), as set out in section 3.9 of the report;

8.  Confirm that the chairing arrangement for the Standards committee set out in paragraph 3.11 of the report should continue (with an independent member taking the chair);

9.  Agree to defer consideration of allocation of Political Assistants until the outcome of the Paulton election is known, and therefore confirm existing appointments until then, on an interim basis;

10.Appoint 3 members to Avon Fire Authority on a proportionality basis to be determined;

11.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;

12.Note the urgent executive decisions that have been taken in the last municipal year, as set out in paragraph 5.3 of the report;

13.Note the position regarding the frequency of meetings (as set out in Section 6 of the report) as the basis for enabling the diary of meetings to be prepared, including a date of 16th May 2024 for the May Council AGM, and to authorise the Monitoring Officer to project dates forward and prepare the diary on this basis;

14.Re-appoint the existing Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP);

15.Instruct the Independent Remuneration Panel to consider a Special Responsibility Allowance for the Cabinet Project Lead role, using the Job Description at Appendix 4 of the report;

16.Note the activity of the Member Advocates, as set out in Appendix 3 of the report;

17.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;

18.Confirm the scheme of delegations, previously agreed at Council, as set out at Part 2 of the Constitution; and

19.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.

[Notes;

1.  The above successful resolution was carried with 49 Councillors voting in favour, 2 Councillors abstaining and no Councillors voting against.

2.  During debate, Councillor Jackson queried whether SACRE should be included in the proportionality table and it was agreed this issue would be resolved outside the meeting.]