Following a meeting of Group Leaders held to discuss and decide the matter, Council is requested to approve the allocation to the political groups formed on Tendring District Council of seats on those bodies that are subject to the Rules of Political Proportionality (Section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989).

In accordance with the wishes expressed by Group Leaders, Council will also appoint Members to serve on those bodies that are subject to the Rules of Political Proportionality (Section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989).

Council considered a comprehensive report prepared by Officers, which detailed the legislative requirements, principles and necessary procedural steps, regarding the allocation to the political groups formed on Tendring District Council of seats on those bodies that were subject to the Rules of Political Proportionality (i.e. Section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989).

Council also considered a Schedule of Members that it was proposed by political Group Leaders should serve on each of the Council’s bodies, which were subject to the Rules of Political Proportionality (Section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989).

Members were aware that there were unallocated seats on the Planning Committee and the Miscellaneous Licensing Sub-Committee, which Full Council would need to consider.

Having duly considered the information contained in the report and the appendix thereto:-

It was moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor I J Henderson that –

(a)     Council confirms that the political balance rules shall not be applied to the Tendring/Colchester Borders Garden Community Joint Committee and the Town & Parish Councils Standards Sub-Committee;

(b)     Council approves the review of the allocation of places on relevant Committees, as set out in Table 2 above in so far as it sets out thetotal number of seats on all those Committees to be allocated to political groups represented on the Council, (principle (c) of the “Principles”);

(c)     Council approves, subject to the subsequent consideration of (d) below, the number of seats on each relevant Committee to be allocated to political groups such that, for each group, their proportion of seats on individual Committees is proportionate to their overall membership on the Council (principles (c) and (d) of the “Principles”):

Table 10

(d)     That the following changes to the allocations set out in Table 8 above be approved (the relevant allocations are shown ‘*’ in Table 10):

(1)     the Labour Group to have two seats on the Human Resources & Council Tax Committee (instead of one), two seats on the Licensing and Registration Committee (instead of one) and no seat on the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee (instead of one);

(2)   the Conservative Group to have one seat on the Planning Committee (instead of two), three seats on the Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee (instead of two) and three seats on the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee (instead of two);

(3)   the Reform UK Group to have two seats on the Planning Committee (instead of one);

(4)   the Tendring Independents Group to have one seat on the Human Resources and Council Tax Committee (instead of two), one seat on the Standards Committee (instead of one), three seats on the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee (instead of two) and three seats on the Licensing and Registration Committee (instead of two);

(5)   the Independent Group to have no seat on the Licensing and Registration Committee (instead of one), no seat on the Miscellaneous Licensing Sub-Committee (instead of one) and two seats on the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee (instead of one); and

(6)   the Liberal Democrats Group to have one seat on the Standards Committee (instead of none).

(e)     Council endorses and approves, in so far as it reflects the earlier decisions on this matter, the appointment of Members to serve on the relevant Committees et cetera, as set out in the tabled Appendix 1 to this report (A.2).

Councillors Harris and Calver addressed the Council during the discussion of Councillor Stephenson’s motion.

On being put to the vote, Councillor M E Stephenson’s motion was declared LOST on the grounds that it had required a nemine contradicente vote to be approved and, in fact, six Councillors had voted against the motion.

At the suggestion of the Council’s Monitoring Officer (Lisa Hastings), the Chairman of the Council adjourned the meeting and requested that Group Leaders (and their Deputies if so desired) accompany the Chief Executive and the Monitoring Officer to the Whitelaw Room to discuss the situation.

Upon the resumption of the meeting, the Monitoring Officer informed Members that she had given advice to the Group Leaders and made recommendations as to what should happen next as follows:-

·      the previous vote could not be taken forward as the legislation required that the motion be passed nemine contradicente i.e. that no one voted against the motion;

·      therefore the Council was required to revert to the position that complied with the legislation prior to the “trading” of seats that was the standard practice in local government on these occasions;

·      suggested that recommendation (a) in report A.2 should be approved nemine contradicente as otherwise this Council would have no appointed Members to serve on the Tendring / Colchester Borders Garden Community Joint Committee and that consequently the meeting of that Joint Committee due to be held on 1^st May 2025 would be inquorate and unable to take place which would leave this Council open to serve reputational risk given the importance of the decisions the Joint Committee was due to make at that meeting especially in relation to the Garden Community Development Plan Document;

·      suggested, at the request of some Members is that at the next review which would be carried out following the by-election in the Frinton Ward on 5 June 2025 in readiness for the following Full Council meeting in July 2025 the Officers would undertake to include the Tendring / Colchester Borders Garden Community Joint Committee seats and the Town & Parish Councils Standards Sub-Committee seats in that review;

·      suggested that Members should then approve the allocation of places as set out in Table 2 in the report (A.2) and also to approve the allocation of seats to each political group as set out in Table 6;

·      Group Leaders would then be asked to provide the Chief Executive with the names of Councillors to sit on those committees following this meeting;

·      this Council would then note that the Council would have five unallocated seats on five different committees and that would remain in place until the next review which would take place following the by-election in the Frinton Ward.

It was moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor I J Henderson and:-

RESOLVED that Council confirms that the political balance rules shall not be applied to the Tendring/Colchester Borders Garden Community Joint Committee and the Town & Parish Councils Standards Sub-Committee.

It was then moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor I J Henderson and:-

RESOLVED that –

(i)       Council approves the review of the allocation of places on relevant Committees, as set out in Table 2, in the report, in so far as it sets out the total number of seats on all those Committees to be allocated to political groups represented on the Council, (principle (c) of the “Principles”);

(ii)      Council approves, the number of seats on each relevant Committee to be allocated to political groups, as set out in Table 6 in the Report, (without adjustments shown in the last column), such that, for each group, their proportion of seats on individual Committees is proportionate to their overall membership on the Council (principles (c) and (d) of the “Principles”):

TABLE 6

(iii)    the appointment of Members to serve on the relevant Committees be formalised through the Chief Executive exercising his delegated powers to approve the appointments, upon Group Leaders providing the names of those Councillors, noting that the Planning Committee membership will need to be confirmed by 1^st May 2025.

(iv)    Council notes the unallocated seats on the Planning Committee, Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee, Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Licensing & Registration Committee vacant at this time pending the outcome of the by-election in the Frinton Ward and a further review of the allocation of seats on Committees et cetera to political groups.