Agenda item

Under section 9P of the Local Government Act 2000 the Council was required to prepare and keep up to date a Constitution containing the standing orders of the Council and such other information as was required or was desirable.  On 27 February 2020 Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority had adopted the Buckinghamshire Council Constitution to have effect from 1 April 2020. The constitution had been reviewed in April 2021.

The power to change the Constitution was reserved to full Council via recommendation from the Standards and General Purposes Committee.  The Monitoring Officer also had delegated authority to make amendments to ensure the Council conducted itself lawfully, and to make minor amendments where appropriate.

A Constitution Members Working Group consisting of the Chairmen and Vice-chairmen of both the Audit and Governance Committee and the Standards and General Purposes Committee had met a number of times to consider proposed changes and provide initial comments to help inform the review of the Constitution as required by full Council.  Feedback from appropriate members and officers to the proposals had also been obtained.  The proposals for changes to the Constitution (Appendix 1 to the Council report) had been submitted to the Audit and Governance Committee on 22 March 2022 and then the Standards and General Purposes Committee on 14 April 2022.  The appendix also included comments made in relation to the proposals.

The changes were set out in principle in Appendix 1 to allow drafting of the proposed changes to take account of member feedback, further legal input or ensure other affected parts of the Constitution can be amended accordingly.

During the debate, points highlighted included:

• The incorporation of Community Boards Terms of Reference into the Constitution which would reflect the current best practices from their first two years of operation. It was raised that the sixteen boards all operated in slightly different ways so the Terms of Reference would provide a base set of rules and regulations which the Constitution Members Working Group would review prior to approval.
• There was a concern raised around Members being permitted to ask only one question of Cabinet within the Cabinet procedure rules as this was not conducive to holding Cabinet Members to account.
• There was a further concern around permitting the Chairman of the Council to remove items from the agenda as this could affect the level of democracy in meetings, although it was clarified that this would be in special circumstances, such as when a meeting ran significantly over time.
• Council was reminded that the Constitution Members Working Group would meet to review all officer wording prior to any change being put forward to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion in the Constitution.

Councillor T Broom moved the three recommendations as noted in the report. These were seconded by Councillor R Newcombe.

RESOLVED –

(1)               That the changes to the Constitution be APPROVED, as detailed at Appendix 1 to the Council report.

(2)               That authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer to determine the final amendments in relation to any ‘in principal’ proposals which are adopted with the approval of the Constitution Members Working Group.

(3)               That authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer to amend the Constitution with the adopted proposals and the final amendments of ‘in principle’ proposals together with any associated necessary incidental amendments.