Issue - meetings

This report seeks to report back on the work that has taken place since August by the Monitoring Officer with the support of external Counsel in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of this Committee and CWG on updates to the Council’s Constitutional required to give effect to the changes adopted back in May 2023.

This Committee received a report detailing the work that had taken place on updates to the Council’s Constitution since August 2023 and set out proposals for recommendation to Full Council for adoption.

The Committee noted that an addendum to the report had been published as a supplement to the agenda in advance of the meeting.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Council Constitution. The Head of Legal and Monitoring Officer (Head of Legal) provided the Committee with a verbal introduction to his report. The Committee was informed that the Constitution is critical to success of the Council’s effective decision making, provides delegation of authority to officers and the ability to maintain good order at meetings. The work of the Committee and Working Group was of great importance in ensuring that the Constitution is maintained in good order to enable the effective running of the Council on a daily basis. The Head of Legal expressed his appreciation for the support of councillors and external legal counsel to enable the report to be brought to this meeting.

b)           Terms of reference of Policy Committees. In response to a question from a member, the Head of Legal informed the Committee that all Policy Committee terms of reference had been amended to clarify that the Committee was able to approve all policy matters within their terms of reference, unless there was a budget impact outside the budget approved for that committee. In circumstances where there was a budget impact outside the committee’s approved budget, the matter must be referred to the Strategy and Resources Committee for consideration unless otherwise permitted by Financial Regulations.

c)            Financial Regulations. In response to a question from the Vice Chair, the Head of Legal informed the Committee that the Terms of Reference of the Committees were read in conjunction with the Council’s Financial Regulations. The Financial Regulations set out that Committees had delegated authority to approve initiatives outside of the approved budget (up to a maximum of £50,000) if certain conditions were met as set out in the Regulations. These conditions included the agreement of the Chief Finance Officer.

d)           Amendment to Licensing and Planning Policy Committee Terms of Reference. The Committee noted that Term of Reference 4 of the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee as detailed on page 82 of the agenda had been included in error and would be deleted prior to consideration by Full Council.

e)            Amendment to Scheme of delegation. In response to a question from a member, the Head of Legal informed the Committee that the Council would be able to consider and approve an amendment to the Scheme of Delegation at its upcoming meeting despite having considered the Scheme at a meeting less than 6 months ago. The Council would not be considering a proposal which would be contrary to its previous decision.

f)             Process for future changes to the Constitution. In response to a question from a member, the Head of Legal informed the Committee that future  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14