Issue - meetings

The Joint Chief Executive, Tom Horwood, introduced the report on the Inter-Authority Agreement.

The Terms of Reference of the Joint Governance Committee required that it carry out a periodic (and at least every 12 months) formal review of the Inter-Authority Agreement (IAA), to ensure that it remained fit for purpose. Any changes considered necessary would be referred to the Full Councils of Guildford and Waverley.

The Committee noted that the Heads of Terms of the IAA had been approved by Full Council meetings of Guildford and Waverley in April 2022, and the IAA had been formally executed and sealed by both Councils in September 2022. The IAA related to the provision of a joint senior management team and this structure had been implemented on 1 October 2022.

The Committee noted that the Terms of Reference of the Joint Appointments Committee within the IAA did not allow substitute members to be appointed, whilst the Joint Governance Committee did allow substitutions. The Committee agreed that substitutes should be allowed on the Joint Appointments Committee, and should reflect the membership as specified by each council, as follows:

“Substitutes: Substitutes may be appointed. Guildford may appoint two substitute members. Waverley may appoint two substitute members, with one being nominated by the Leader of the council, and one nominated by the Leader of Waverley’s Principal Opposition Group.”

On the advice of the Monitoring Officer, this would require a change to each councils’ constitution that would need to be recommended to the Full Council of Guildford and Waverley via their respective governance routes for such matters.

RESOLVED to recommend to the Guildford Corporate Governance & Standards Committee and the Waverley Standards & General Purposes Committee that the constitutions of Guildford and Waverley councils be amended to allow for substitute members on the Joint Appointments Committee, as set out above.