Agenda and minutes

To receive from Members, declarations of interests in relation to any items included on the agenda for this meeting in accordance with the Waverley Code of Local Government Conduct.

There were none received from Members.

The purpose of the report (ATTACHED) is to request that the Standards and General Purposes Committee consider some proposed amendments to the Council’s current constitution in respect of amendments to the size, composition, terms of reference and arrangements for their Committees, and, having given due consideration to all options, and officer advice presented, make appropriate recommendations to the Council.

Council will meet at 7pm on Wednesday 7 June 2023.

7 Members registered to speak on the item, specifically the proposals around the abolishment of Area Planning Committees.

Cllr Clark – expressed that a single planning committee would be a more equitable position and the knowledge of Neighbourhood plan(s) must be emphasised. He also suggested annual rotating Chairs of the committee.

Cllr Beaman – suggested that the single committee structure was more suitable than the A & B committee structure and suggested that there should be at least 6 Farnham Residents Councillors on the committee.

Cllr Hyman - stated disagreement with the proposals on the grounds that the proposed changes should go through the O&S Services Committee for further scrutiny.

Cllr Martin – stated opposition to the planning committee proposals and noted that the report in appendix 1 does not suggest the abolishment of geographic planning committees. He added that geographic knowledge and context is vital element of Planning as Waverley covers a large geographic area.

Cllr Austin – noted that the PAS report in Appendix 1 did not state the relevance of changing the geographic planning structure. She further referenced the Planning Improvement Peer Group Report of 2018.

Cllr Staunton – raised concerns that non-geographic committees would disadvantage large rural wards.

Cllr Follows – clarified that Ward Councillors would not be excluded from meetings; they would be unable to vote or participate in the debate. He further clarified that proposals set out in the report aimed to remove the possibility of pre-determination. He also noted that the change in committee structure was strongly implied in the PAS report in Appendix 1.

The Committee discussed the proposals and recommendations put forward in the report.

Recommendation 2.1.1

The Committee were in unanimous agreement with the recommendation to rename the Audit Committee to the ‘Audit and Risk Committee’ and that authority be delegated to the Monitory Officer to amend the constitution to reflect this change. The committee were satisfied with the reasons stated in the report, to better reflect the remit of the committee which includes both audit and risk management functions.

Recommendation 2.1.2

The Committee agreed to the recommendation to reduce the size of the ‘Audit and Risk Committee’ from 8 Councillors to 7 to reflect the change in the size of the Council and that authority be delegated to the monitoring officer to reflect the change.

Recommendation 2.1.3

The Committee agreed to the recommendation to reduce the size of the ‘Standards and General Purposes’ Committee from 9 Councillors to 7, to reflect the change in the size of the Council.

Recommendation 2.2; Changes to the number, size, composition and terms of reference of their Planning Committee(s) to be established for the municipal year 2023/24

Proposals 7.8-7.9

The Chair invited Members to discuss the proposals set out in the report.

The Committee were in agreement about the proposal for Members of the Committee to be substituted by any Member of the Council from the same political group as the absent Member, who had undertaken the mandatory training requirements, other than a  ...  view the full minutes text for item SGP2/23