Meeting documents

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2017.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Governance & Electoral Arrangements Committee held on 18 July 2017 were agreed as a correct record.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

The Joint Committee agreed that this item was to be deferred for consideration at a future meeting.

RESOLVED that the item be deferred for consideration at a future meeting.

In accordance with the agreed constitutional review work programme, Members undertook a detailed review of Part A - ‘The Framework of the Constitution’. 

The Council’s Constitution was last reviewed in 2014/15 and an updated version came into effect in May 2015. This took account of the reduction in the number of members and incorporated shared working arrangements with Chiltern District Council in place at the time. Therefore substantial changes to the Framework were not required. However, Members were advised that it has been necessary to incorporate provisions relating to the Governance & Electoral Arrangements Committee’s new role in respect of monitoring and reviewing the Constitution in the paragraphs dealing with changes to the Constitution and the details of standing committees.  Members also noted that changes to the Joint Waste arrangements have been incorporated, as well as the new Joint Staffing Committee and Sub-Committee, which replaced the Joint Appointments and Implementation Committee.

Having considered the framework, the Committee were of the opinion that the quoracy for meetings of the Cabinet and Overview and Scrutiny Committee were too low and in both cases should be increased to three members.

The Committee requested that the following paragraphs/sentences be rewritten to make them easier to understand:

·         3.2 (Approval of changes to and within the constitution) – first bullet point

·         Title of 3.3 (change from a leader and cabinet form of executive to alternative arrangements or vice versa)

·         8.4.2 (use of substitutes)

·         8.6.4 (shared independent persons) – second sentence

·         Staffing Sub Committee – bullet point number a) - to refer to South Bucks District Council not Chiltern District Council.

The Committee requested that where relevant, cross referencing should be used.  The Committee also agreed that there was a need to include legal and complex terminology into a glossary so that readers could look up their meanings in plain English. This should include the definition of a "Mayoral Form of Executive".

The Committee questioned whether it was usual practice to limit councillors who were non-members of the Planning Committee to no more than 5 minutes when addressing the Planning Committee on an application.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services agreed to review this and report back to Members.

The amendments to the document as agreed would be reflected in the final draft Constitution presented for consideration by the Committee as outlined in the Committee’s Work Programme.

RESOLVED that the proposed revisions to the Framework of the Constitution shown at Appendix 1 be agreed subject to the incorporation of the amendments set out in the minute above.

The Committee received the Review of the Constitution Work Programme 2017/2018.