Issue - items at meetings - Cabinet Members' Items - Report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder - A.1 - Annual Review of the Council's Constitution

To approve the recommended changes to the Constitution for referral onto Full Council following a review undertaken by the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance through a Working Party constituted for this purpose.

RESOLVED –

1. That Cabinet RECOMMENDS TO COUNCIL that:

(a) the Council’s Constitution be amended to reflect the proposed changes as set out in Appendices A to K and M attached hereto this report;

(b) Council notes and endorses that a comprehensive review of the Constitution will be undertaken and that it is likely to take place in 2025-2026;

(c) in accordance with the outcome of consultation with Members, the commencement time of meetings of the Planning Committee should be amended to 5.00 p.m. and that if a Ward Member / referrer for a planning application so requests, the Officers, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, should make every effort to list that particular planning application later on in the Planning Committee’s agenda; and

(d) Council notes, welcomes and endorses that the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, intends to exercise her delegated powers and make amendments to the following part of the Council’s Constitution:-

Article 10 (Community Consultation and Participation) - Table 2 will be updated.

2. That Cabinet -

(a) notes that the Leader of the Council will exercise his delegated power (as set out in Schedule 3 (Responsibility for Executive Functions) of Part 3 of the Council’s Constitution and specifically principle 1(ii) of Section 3 (General Principles regarding Decision Making by the Cabinet – Part 3.27) to approve the proposed change to the delegated powers of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, as set out in Appendix L attached hereto this report;

(b) endorses that a comprehensive review of the Constitution, including its formatting etc. will be undertaken and that it is likely to take place in 2025-2026;

(c) notes that the Leader of the Council will further investigate whether to recommend, in due course, that the public speaking scheme for the Planning Committee should be amended to include provision for the relevant County Division Member to speak on planning applications before that Committee;

(d) notes that the Leader of the Council has undertaken to consult the Assistant Director (Partnerships) and the Head of People on the matters raised by the Working Party in relation to the composition of the Human Resources Sub-Committee Panel, which is the body that forms part of the recruitment process for the appointment of Senior Officers (as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 11 of Schedule 2 of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001 (as amended)) before deciding whether he wishes to make any recommendations to Cabinet on this matter;

(e) notes, welcomes and endorses that the Monitoring Officer intends to review the terms of reference and delegated powers of the Human Resources and Council Tax Committee and its sub-committee which would look, in particular, at the relevant Human Resources policies and the model procedures for an Appeals Committee for the dismissal of the statutory and chief officers;

(f) notes, welcomes and endorses that the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, intends to exercise her delegated powers and ... view the full decision text for item 91

Cabinet considered a report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder (A.1), which sought its approval of the recommended changes to the Constitution for referral onto Full Council following a review undertaken by the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance through a Working Party constituted for this purpose.

It was reported that the main proposals covered a number of miscellaneous amendments to the Articles of the Constitution, Access to Information Procedure Rules, Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules, the Financial Procedure Rules, the Webcasting Protocol, the Members’ Referral Scheme for Planning Applications (Planning Code & Protocol), the Members’ Allowances Scheme, the Functions and Delegated Powers of Portfolio Holders, Committees and Proper Officers and Officer Employment Procedure Rules, in order to ensure the Council’s Constitution remained effective, efficient and consistent at an operational level. The key changes to each of those documents were highlighted within the body of this Report.

Having considered the outcome of the annual review of the Constitution carried out by the Review of the Constitution Portfolio Holder Working Party and the Portfolio Holder’s recommendations arising therefrom, and in order to enable those recommendations to be submitted to the Full Council for approval and adoption:-

It was moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor Baker and:-