Meeting documents

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors A D Collingwood, C Etholen, R Gaffney, and Ms J D Wassell.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2016 (previously circulated)

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the Regulatory and Appeals Committee held on 2 March 2016 be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any disclosure of disclosable pecuniary interests by Members relating to items on the agenda.  If any Member is uncertain as to whether an interest should be disclosed, he or she is asked if possible to contact the District Solicitor prior to the meeting.

Members are reminded that if they are declaring an interest, they should state the nature of that interest whether or not they are required to withdraw from the meeting. 

No declarations of interest were received.

Members will recall that the Contract Standing Orders were agreed by Full Council on 11 April 2016.

The Committee agreed that the Procurement Manager should be invited to this meeting to briefly outline the changes to these Standing Orders, and afford Members an opportunity to ask any questions. Enclosed on Pages 1-17 is a summary of the changes that were agreed.

The Committee welcomed the Council’s Procurement Manager to the meeting, who gave a brief overview of the changes to Contract Standing Orders, which had been agreed by Full Council on 11 April 2016.

It was noted that the Public Contract Regulations 2015 had initiated a number of the proposed changes and the opportunity had also been taken to undertake a full review of Contract Standing Orders.

The Committee noted each proposed change in turn and the Procurement Manager outlined the detail relating to them. Members asked questions seeking clarity on some of the changes, during which it was noted that detailed checks would be taking place on expenditure and invoices.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Committee confirmed that they were happy with the changes and explanations presented. Members thanked the Procurement Manager for his attendance and assistance. 

The Committee considered proposed amendments to the Council’s Members’ Allowances Scheme, following work undertaken by the Allowances Sub Group.

At the last meeting of the Committee, Members were presented with the report from the Independent Remuneration Panel setting out recommendations following their review of members’ allowances. The Committee considered these recommendations in detail and in turn, made onward recommendations to Full Council. A copy of the report and Minutes of this meeting, setting out the Committee’s responses to each of the Panel’s recommendations, were set out at appendix A to the report.

These recommendations had included the establishment of the sub-group to undertake further work in relation to four outstanding issues, as follows:

·         The Leader’s allowance should be set higher than that of the Chairman of the Council

·         The level of the basic allowance – the Committee had rejected the Independent Remuneration Panel’s recommendation that this level should remain unchanged and that there should be an increase.

·         The Committee had rejected the Panel’s recommendation that a special responsibility allowance of £50 per Planning Committee site visit be introduced to replace the existing special responsibility payment to Planning Committee Members.

·         The Committee had rejected the Panel’s recommendation to introduce a special responsibility payment of £50 per meeting at Licensing Panels, and asked the Sub-group to consider this further and report back

Members noted that as part of their work, the Sub-Group had received information relating to the level of allowances from neighbouring District and Borough Authorities with a similar size population as the Council. Information relating to the level of allowances from neighbouring Buckinghamshire Authorities was also taken into account. 

The Committee was invited to consider a number of recommendations from the Sub Group, and it was noted that there was no budgetary provision for increases in members’ allowances. Implementation of the proposals would result in an additional budget requirement of £114,376.

Following discussion, it was

RECOMMENDED: That (i) the proposed recommendations from the Allowances Sub Group as set out below, be agreed:

a)Basic Allowance – Having noted that this allowance had not been increased for a number of years, and in noting that the average level of the basic allowance of the top 12 District and Borough Councils via population was £6,100, the level of the basic allowance be increased to £6,000.

b)Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for Chairmen of Regulatory & Appeals, High Wycombe Town, Audit, and Licensing Committees – in order to reflect the workload of these positions, the ‘multiplier’ in the current Scheme be amended from 0.25 x basic allowance to 0.5 x basic allowance. (Multiplier for other Chairmen positions to remain unchanged).

c)    SRA for Chairman of Improvement and Review Commission – in order to reflect the workload of this position, the ‘multiplier’ in the current Scheme be amended from 0.75 x basic allowance to 1 x basic allowance.

d)    SRA for Vice-Chairmen of Committees – the multiplier in the Scheme be amended from the current level of 0.25 x basic allowance to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Committee considered a report on proposed amendments to the Scheme for the Enrolment of Honorary Aldermen.

It was noted that the operation of a scheme for Honorary Aldermen was governed by Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972. Part 5H of the Council’s Constitution set out the Wycombe Scheme and a copy was attached to the report as appendix A.

The Leader of the Council had requested that the Scheme be amended to state that there should be a maximum of 10 Honorary Aldermen at any one time. Currently, the Council had 10 Honorary Aldermen, and the Leader considered that this number should be a maximum for the Council. It was proposed that a new section (f) be inserted in paragraph 1 of the Scheme, to read "That there shall be a maximum of 10 Honorary Aldermen at any one time".

It was noted that it was appropriate to tidy up other aspects of the Scheme. For example, under section 5 ‘Privileges’, references were made to the use of the Members Room in the District Council offices, and it was proposed that this should be removed from the Scheme as there was no longer a members’ room in the Offices. In addition, the Scheme contained references to Honorary Aldermen receiving the Council Year Book and Diary, and it was proposed that this be removed as these publications were no longer produced.

RECOMMENDED: That the proposed amendments to the Scheme for the Enrolment of Honorary Aldermen (Part 5H of the Constitution), as set out above and in paragraphs 5 and 6 of the report, be agreed and the Democratic Services Manager be authorised to make the amendments.

These will be circulated at the meeting for information.

Actions taken under delegated authority were circulated at the meeting for information.