Agenda item

To approve and amend the Constitution to provide additional emergency decision making powers and agree procedures for the remote conduct of meetings.

A vote was held:

22 for,

0 against

The Mayor abstained

Therefore it was agreed:

1.         That Council agree to the changes to the Constitution and procedures as set out in paragraphs 8-44 to the report and authorise the Monitoring Officer to make the required changes to the Constitution.

2.         In the event that government guidance changes the Leader of the Council in consultation with the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Opposition shall have authority to agree to reintroduce face to face meetings and suspend either in full or in part these temporary arrangements pending formal agreement at the next available Council meeting.

3.         That authority be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the S151 Officer, to draw down funds from reserves in order to finance expenditure that may be required in the Council’s response to Covid-19. This expenditure will be reported back to Cabinet and Council at the next available meeting.

4.           That the proposals for Development Management Committee as set out in paragraph 29-36 shall be for an interim period to allow officers time to test the use of remote meeting systems, to develop a meeting protocol and train committee members.  As soon as the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council, Leader of the Opposition and Monitoring Officer is satisfied that remote meetings or meetings with appropriate social distancing can work efficiently with appropriate public participation,  the Chief Executive shall be delegated authority to agree to commence remote meetings, or meetings with appropriate social distancing, and the proposals set out in paragraph 29-36 shall cease to operate and the normal constitutional rules in relation to Development Management Committee shall re-commence subject to allowing participation by councillors and members of the public by remote access and subject to any other procedural rules agreed by the Monitoring Officer.

The recommendation to Council was to approve and amend the Constitution to provide additional emergency decision making powers and agree procedures for the remote conduct of meetings.

Councillor Williams said members have had the opportunity to read through the proposed amendments as part of the contingency arrangements whilst we work our way through the current situation in line with the advice given by Central Government. He recognised that some of the restrictions on our current operations are less than satisfactory and using technology overcomes some of that but doesn’t enable us to overcome all of the issues that members might have concerns about in the report. He gave a couple of updates following conversations between himself, Councillor Tindall and the responsible officers earlier today, firstly relating to the role of overview and scrutiny in the current arrangements. In order to facilitate the scrutiny process and in light of the possibility of reduced officer availability, the suggestion was that we reduce the workload of scrutiny by taking it down to the core minimum to effectively operate. He said he recognised that caused some concern but we will endeavour to maximise and run scrutiny as normal as possible, however we will ask members to bear in mind that items such as performance reports may be effected by officer availability.

He said the other concern from members was how we take forward Development Management Committee in these current circumstances and recognise that recommendations in the report do in some way restrict the role of ward members and also the involvement of Town and Parish Councillors. With all that in mind Councillor Williams proposed the following additional recommendation:

“That the proposals for Development Management Committee as set out in paragraph 29-36 shall be for an interim period to allow officers time to test the use of remote meeting systems, to develop a meeting protocol and train committee members.  As soon as the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council, Leader of the Opposition and Monitoring Officer is satisfied that remote meetings or meetings with appropriate social distancing can work efficiently with appropriate public participation,  the Chief Executive shall be delegated authority to agree to commence remote meetings, or meetings with appropriate social distancing, and the proposals set out in paragraph 29-36 shall cease to operate and the normal constitutional rules in relation to Development Management Committee shall re-commence subject to allowing participation by councillors and members of the public by remote access and subject to any other procedural rules agreed by the Monitoring Officer.”

Councillor Tindall thanked The Leader of the Council for the discussions today and for resolving the concerns of his group by coming to an arrangement that he felt satisfied with. He believed it achieves the purpose of maintaining the administration of the council whilst giving as much democracy as we can in these difficult circumstances.

Councillor Guest felt the arrangements for Development Management Committee appear to enable the planning process to take place smoothly and efficiently whilst maintaining the democratic role in ensuring the applications do go through the process. She said as Chairman of that committee she was happy with the proposals.

Councillor Beauchamp said he understood that site visits would no longer be made by officers and that applicants have been asked to send in photos/videos of the sites. He asked that when we come to review the applications and any photographs and plans etc. that would normally be displayed at the committee meeting would be forwarded to members.

Councillor Williams said he would take on board the comments and will ensure that members have all the information they need in order to reach a decision just as they would if they were present in the room for a normal Development Management meeting.

A vote was held:

22 for,

0 against,

The Mayor abstained

Therefore it was agreed:

1.         That Council agree to the changes to the Constitution and procedures as set out in paragraphs 8-44 to the report and authorise the Monitoring Officer to make the required changes to the Constitution.

2.         In the event that government guidance changes the Leader of the Council in consultation with the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Opposition shall have authority to agree to reintroduce face to face meetings and suspend either in full or in part these temporary arrangements pending formal agreement at the next available Council meeting.

3.         That authority be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the S151 Officer, to draw down funds from reserves in order to finance expenditure that may be required in the Council’s response to Covid-19. This expenditure will be reported back to Cabinet and Council at the next available meeting.

4.         That the proposals for Development Management Committee as set out in paragraph 29-36 shall be for an interim period to allow officers time to test the use of remote meeting systems, to develop a meeting protocol and train committee members.  As soon as the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council, Leader of the Opposition and Monitoring Officer is satisfied that remote meetings or meetings with appropriate social distancing can work efficiently with appropriate public participation,  the Chief Executive shall be delegated authority to agree to commence remote meetings, or meetings with appropriate social distancing, and the proposals set out in paragraph 29-36 shall cease to operate and the normal constitutional rules in relation to Development Management Committee shall re-commence subject to allowing participation by councillors and members of the public by remote access and subject to any other procedural rules agreed by the Monitoring Officer.