Agenda item

To consider the report of the Head of Legal & Democratic Services (attached).

The Council was informed that the Governance Working Group had agreed by majority to recommend that the size of the Standing Committees of the Council be reduced. The Group also proposed amending the membership of the Joint Staff Consultative Group to six councillor representatives and six Staff Representatives, and its own membership be amended to seven members comprising four representatives from the Liberal Democrats group and the opposition group leaders.

It was reported that that the size of committees was high in comparison to other Surrey authorities when factoring the size of the Council. Furthermore, the changes were intended to free up Members’ time to participate in working groups and other councillor activities.

Members discussed the proposal to reduce the committees’ sizes  alongside the greater flexibility in the arrangements for nominating substitutes. Differing views were presented on how this would affect the quality of Councillor engagement in debate and decision making, and affect the balance of councillors’ workloads. Members also considered feedback on how the proposals aligned with the arrangements in neighbouring Councils.  It was noted that the changes would not result in any savings for the Council.

The Council was reminded that changing the size of the standing committees would require the scheme of proportionality to be amended. It would also noted that the memberships would need to be updated to reflect the altered scheme; any changes to memberships would be agreed by the Chief Executive using delegated authority and reported to the next meeting. It was clarified that the changes were proposed to be effective from 1 December 2023.

It was moved by Councillor Richard Wilson, seconded by Councillor Morgan Rise, and

RESOLVED that

(i)     the size of the Standing Committees of the Council and other bodies of the Council be amended, as set out at paragraphs 1.2 and 1.3 of the agenda report;

(ii)   the revised the scheme of proportionality, as set out at Annex A to the agenda report, be adopted for the remainder 2023/24; and

(iii)  the revisions to the membership of the Committees, as set out at Annex B to the agenda report, be agreed.

Note 1: In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 16.4, a recorded vote was taken.

The following Members voted in favour of the recommendation to change the size of committees:

Councillors Alan Ashbery, Louise Ashbery, Cliff Betton, Kel Finan-Cooke, Lisa Finan-Cooke, Julie Hoad, Nirmal Kang, Sarbie Kang, Rob Lee, Shaun Macdonald, Sashi Mylvaganam, Liz Noble, Jacques Olmo, David O’Mahoney, Ying Perrett, Jonathan Quin, Bob Raikes, Murray Rowlands, Morgan Rise, Kevin Thompson, Richard Wilson.

The following Members voted against the recommendation to change the size of committees:

Councillors Jonny Cope, Shaun Garrett, Mark Gordon, Emma-Jane McGrath, Lewis Mears, Pat Tedder, Josh Thorne, Victoria Wheeler, Valerie White.