Agenda item

To consider the report of the Governance Working Group and the recommendations contained therein.

The Governance Working Group had met on 5 February 2016 and 18 March 2016 and had considered a number of issues and made recommendations relating to the Planning Code of Practice – Committee Member Site Visits Procedure, Financial Regulations, IT Code of Practice for Members and  the Licensing Sub Committees.

As a result of the decision to move meetings of the Planning Committee from a Monday to a Thursday from the start of the 2016/17 Municipal Year, the Working Group had reviewed the procedure for committee member site visits. It was agreed to recommend that the procedure be revised so that requests for a site visit must be received by 4pm at least four clear working days before a Committee meeting and that the Council’s Constitution be updated accordingly. 

In accordance with the requirement of the Council’s Constitution to review Financial Regulations every five years, the Working Group reviewed the Regulations.  The Regulations had been amended to reflect legislative changes and the changes brought about by the implementation of Civica, the Council’s new finance and purchasing system, but also to make them more accessible and user friendly. 

The Working Group had also reviewed the IT Code of Practice for Members which had been updated to reflect the changes that had been made to the IT equipment provided to Members.  It was noted, in relation to the removal of a Councillor’s IT equipment as a result of the breach of the Code, that the Working Group had recommended that it would be for the Audit and Standards Committee to authorise this sanction.

The Working Group had also discussed ongoing concerns about Licensing Sub-committees.  The Licensing Act 2003 restricted the size of the Licensing Committee to between 10 and 15 councillors and that the membership of any Sub-committees established by the Licensing Committee had to be drawn from the main Committee. The Working Group had noted that substitutes of the Licensing Committee were able to sit on Sub-committees and had agreed that increasing participation levels would be explored in more detail at its next meeting.  Sub-committee hearings had, where possible in the past, been chaired by either the Chairman or Vice Chairman of the Licensing Committee and the Working Group had agreed that, in order to spread the responsibility, a small pool of Licensing Committee members would be nominated to act as Licensing Sub-committee Chairmen.

Resolved that

(i)              paragraph 7, Appendix B of the Planning Code of Practice for Councillors and Officers at Part 5 of the Constitution be amended as follows;

          ‘requests must be made in writing, explaining the reason for the request, to the Development Manager with a copy forwarded to the Executive Head of Regulatory and the Democratic and Electoral Services Officer by 4 pm on the Monday preceding four clear working days before the Planning Applications Committee meeting.’;

(ii)            the revised Financial Regulations, attached as Annex A be adopted; and

(iii)          the revised IT Code of Practice for Members, attached as Annex B be adopted.