Agenda item

Recommendation

That the Council RESOLVES that:

1.1      the committees as set out in paragraph 5.6 be established for the 2023/24 municipal year with the committee sizes shown; and

1.2      The changes to the terms of reference of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees and the Eastern and Western Planning Committees as shown in paragraph 5.7 be approved.

12.1     The Mayor introduced the report proposing the establishment of Council committees for the 2023/24 Council year, including some minor changes to the terms of reference of certain committees.

12.2     The Mayor reported a couple of corrections to the report: the recommendation should have referred to paragraphs 4.7 and 4.8 (rather than 5.6 and 5.7), and there had been a transposition of two figures in the third column of the table at paragraph 4.5: the Labour/Green Group should read as 6% as the proportion of total members and the Liberal Democrats should as 44%.

12.3     The Mayor continued to explain that the report proposed to re-establish the same committees as for 2022/23, with minor amendments to the terms of reference of the Overview & Scrutiny Committees to better align the new service areas with the committee remits, and to align the geography of the Eastern and Western Area Planning Committees with the new ward arrangements following the Boundary Review. However, the Leader had proposed some further amendments which were previewed in the report (paragraph 5.2) and the Mayor invited the Leader to expand on these proposals.

12.4     The Leader began by thanking Cllr Hyman for his advice prior to the meeting, that the revised proposals should be referred to the Standards & General Purposes Committee for consideration and recommendation to Full Council. He went on to outline the proposed changes:

·         to reduce the size of all committees to reflect the reduction in the size of the Council from 57 to 50 members as a result of the Boundary Review;

·         to amend the name of the Audit Committee to the Audit & Risk Committee to reflect the intention to take a more proactive approach to risk management;

·         to change the arrangements for the planning committees, replacing the Eastern and Western Area Planning Committees with two non-geographical planning committees each of 11 members, and with ward Members no longer permitted to take part in the determination of any applications in their ward beyond making representations to the committee.

12.5     The Leader reminded Councillors that the council was facing possible designation by the Government in relation to its planning performance, and the council needed to demonstrate that it was being proactive in addressing the drivers for both speed of planning decisions and quality of decision-making. Whilst members of the planning committee would not be able to take part in the debate and vote on a planning application in their ward, they would be free to make representations to the committee without any concern about being perceived as being predetermined.

12.6     Cllr Peter Martin welcomed the referral of the proposals to the Standards & General Purposes Committee, but disagreed with the proposals for the planning committees which he would expand on at the Committee meeting. Cllrs Goodridge, Munro, Cockburn and Beaman were also opposed to the proposed changes to the planning committees, and asked that all options for the planning committee arrangements be explored by the Standards & General Purposes Committee.

12.7     Cllr Hyman asked that the reduction in the size of the committees should be agreed by Council immediately, but the Monitoring Officer advised that the entire amendment should now to be referred to the Standards & General Purposes Committee.

12.8     At the conclusion of the debate, the Mayor asked Council members to vote on amending the recommendation as set on page 19 of the agenda pack to include a further recommendation:

12.9     That the Standards & General Purposes Committee receive a report at their next meeting to consider changes to the Constitution as proposed in paragraph 5.2 on page 25 of the agenda pack.

12.10   The amendment was carried with 46 votes in favour, one against and no abstentions.

12.11   There were no further speakers on the revised substantive recommendation, and Council RESOLVED that:

1          the committees as set out in paragraph 4.7 of the report be established for the 2023/24 municipal year with committee sizes shown;

2.         the changes to the terms of reference of the Overview & Scrutiny Committees and Eastern and Western Planning Committees as shown in paragraph 4.8 of the report be approved; and

3.         the Standards & General Purposes Committee receive a report at their next meeting to consider changes to the Constitution as proposed in paragraph 5.2 of the report on page 25 of the agenda pack.