Agenda item

The following report proposes a number of constitutional updates that flow from discussions held at the Council’s recent Standards and Constitution Committee, held on 16 April 2025. The recommendations considered by Committee originated from the Constitutional Member Working Group, recommendations from the Chair of this Committee and recommendations from the Council’s Monitoring Officer.

Council received a report proposing a number of constitutional updates. The Mayor highlighted to the Council that an updated version of the report had been published during the week prior to the meeting.

Councillor Hannah Dalton MOVED the recommendations in the report.

An amendment to the recommendations was MOVED by Councillor Kate Chinn and SECONDED by Councillor Chris Ames. The proposed amendment was as follows:

·                Remove "and 3" from the recommendation 2?.

·                Add "Instruct the CWG to work with the council's monitoring officer to identify only the essential changes required to ensure the constitution is lawful for the very limited time the council functions as EEBC"

The amendment was not accepted by the proposer of the original motion and accordingly was debated by the Council. Upon being put to the vote the amendment was LOST with 5 votes for, 16 votes against, 4 abstentions and the Mayor not voting.

An amendment to the recommendations was MOVED by Councillor James Lawrence and SECONDED by Councillor Chris Ames. The proposed amendment was as follows:

·                Change Recommendation 3 to:?

Sections 3 (para 3.1.3.i) and 4 (para 4.21, 4.22, 4.23, 4.24.8.3, and 4.27) of this report.?

·                 Delete Recommendation 4

The amendment was not accepted by the proposer of the original motion and accordingly was debated by the Council. Upon being put to the vote the amendment was LOST with 8 votes for, 14 votes against, 3 abstentions and the Mayor not voting.

An amendment to the recommendations was MOVED by Councillor Alex Coley and SECONDED by Councillor Bernie Muir. The proposed amendment was as follows:

·                Change Recommendation 2 to:?

"Appendices 1 and 3 to this report." ?

·                 Appendix 2 - the live scheme of delegations, to be discussed properly at the Constitution Working Group to understand the implications and only then brought to a future meeting of the Council for approval.

The amendment was not accepted by the proposer of the original motion and accordingly was debated by the Council. Upon being put to the vote the amendment was LOST with 8 votes for, 15 votes against, 2 abstentions and the Mayor not voting.

Upon being put, the recommendations of the substantive motion were CARRIED as follows:

The Council agreed with 16 votes for, 6 votes against, 3 abstentions and the Mayor not voting to:

(1)       Approve and adopt the updates to the Council’s Constitution, as set out within:

·                Appendices 1, 2 and 3 to this report, and

The Council agreed with 14 votes for, 6 votes against and 5 abstentions and the Mayor not voting to:

(2)       Approve and adopt the updates to the Council’s Constitution, as set out within:

·                Sections 3 (para 3.1.3) and 4 (para 4.21, 4.22, 4.23, 4.24.7, 4.24.8, 4.25 and 4.26) of this report.

The Council agreed with 15 votes for, 8 votes against and 2 abstentions and the Mayor not voting to:

(3)       Delegate to the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Chair of the Standards and Constitution Committee, the authority required to update the Council’s Constitution to bring into effect recommendations 1 and 2 above.

Note: Councillor Julian Freeman joined the meeting following the start of the debate on this item and accordingly was not able to participate in the votes on this item.