Issue - meetings

This report proposes temporary changes to the Council’s governance arrangements in response to the business imperative to prioritise urgent action to support the Waverley community during the Coronavirus emergency.

It summarises keys changes in legislation (via the Coronavirus Act 2020) and Regulations (via the Local Authorities (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Meetings (England)) Regulations 2020) (“the Regulations”) and makes recommendations on temporary arrangements for Council and committee meetings during the 6-month period from April to October 2020.

Recommendations

That the Executive recommends to Full Council:

1.         That in principle, remote meetings, at least for the time being, be used sparingly, and that only matters considered to be critical to the Council’s business be dealt with by way of remote meetings.  Non-critical, ‘business as usual’ items and items that can be delegated to officers (either through existing or new delegations), delayed or cancelled are not dealt with by remote meetings. All time-limited emergency provisions to be reviewed at the July Council meeting and at any further Full Council meetings beyond that as required.

2.         That the Annual Meeting of Council for 2020 be postponed until such date to be agreed by the Leader of the Council, the Mayor, and the Chief Executive.

3.         That the Mayor and Deputy Mayor remain in their current roles until an Annual Meeting of the Council is held.

4.         That the committee memberships for 2019/20 continue for 2020/21, subject to any adjustments required to satisfy political proportionality following the January 2020 by-election; and that existing committee chairmen and vice-chairmen continue for 2020/21 unless there is a need to appoint a new chairman and/or vice-chairman due to any other reason.

5.         That the revised schedule of committee meetings outlined for Phases 1, 2 and 3 in paragraph 4.8 below, is agreed; a detailed calendar of meetings will be provided to Members as soon as possible.

The Executive further recommends that the Standards Committee:

6.         Considers and makes recommendations to Full Council on the adoption of revised Procedure Rules in relation to virtual meetings, and remote attendance at meetings, including a delegation to the Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Mayor, the Leader and the Chair of the Standards Committee to make minor amendments as need is identified in the light of experience.

7.         Considers and makes recommendations to Full Council on the Terms of Reference of the proposed two new temporary EASTERN and WESTERN planning committees, on the basis of agreement between Group Leaders and Independent Members, together with recommendations on appropriate sunset clauses for these committees.

8.         Considers and makes recommendations to Full Council on any other revisions to the Scheme of Delegation that officers propose in response to the Coronavirus Act 2020, or to facilitate the Council’s response to the COVID-19 emergency.

79.1    The Leader introduced the report setting out proposed temporary governance arrangements that reflected the provisions of the Local Authorities (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Meetings) (England) Regulations 2020 (the Regulations) that enabled remote attendance at council meetings by Members, and waived the requirement to have an Annual Council meeting before 7 May 2021. Besides holding virtual council meetings, the most significant change in governance arrangements proposed was a temporary stream-lining of the planning committee structure, moving from five committees to two committees. The proposals had cross-party support in principle, but in the interests of transparency the Standards Committee was being asked to review the proposed arrangements and make recommendations to Council.

79.2    Cllr Julia Potts, Leader of the Principal Opposition Group, thanked the Leader for the opportunity to contribute to the discussions about implementing virtual meetings and developing the proposals for temporary planning committee arrangements.

79.3    Cllr Hyman noted that the government had already indicated its likely approach of helping the country build its way out of recession, and he highlighted the pressure this would put on the council’s environmental and climate change agendas. It was therefore all the more important to ensure that decision-making was robust and subject to scrutiny. He was looking for assurances that the involvement of the Standards Committee was not tokenism and there would be a genuine opportunity for scrutiny of the proposals.

79.4    Cllr John Gray assured Cllr Hyman that the proposals for the planning committees had been considered very carefully by the Conservative Group and the consensus had been that this was a good compromise to enable the council to continue taking planning decisions during the current crisis. He was pleased that the Standards Committee would be able to assure itself the proper procedures were being followed and the arrangements were sound. Cllr Gray advised that he had had confirmation that the Audit Committee would be meeting in July, and he felt that it would be helpful for all Members to have a briefing on the impact of the crisis on the Medium Term Financial Plan.

79.5    Cllr Jenny Else asked that Members be kept informed about what decisions had been dealt with by officers under delegations rather than being brought to committees, if this was the case.

79.6    Cllr Follows reminded Members of the Executive’s commitment to openness and transparency, and recognised that in an emergency situation there was potential for abuse of authority. That was why the Executive was seeking the input of the Standards Committee and allowing them to make recommendations to Council. In addition, the report made it clear that Overview and Scrutiny was not being overlooked, and temporary arrangements would be subject to review and sunset clauses to ensure that normal arrangements were resumed as soon as Council felt it was appropriate. Cllr Merryweather endorsed the importance of scrutiny, and confirmed that he was discussing with officers the best time to hold a Member briefing on the financial situation of the Council.

79.7    In summing up, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79