Agenda item

To enable Council to decide whether to approve the reason for Members’ non-attendance at meetings of the Council etc.

The Council had before it a report of the Assistant Director (Governance) & Monitoring Officer (A.2) which would enable it to decide whether to approve the reason(s) for Members’ non-attendance at meetings of the Council et cetera.

Council was aware that, if a Councillor did not attend any meeting of the Council (or any of its Committees or Sub-Committees) for a consecutive period of six months, Section 85 of Part V of the Local Government Act 1972 would disqualify them from office unless the Full Council had approved the reason(s) for that non-attendance before the end of that period.

Members were further aware that sub-section (2A) referred to Councils operating executive arrangements and mandated that, if a member of the executive of that local authority, failed throughout a period of six consecutive months from the date of their last attendance to attend any meeting of the executive, they would, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the local authority before the expiry of that period, cease to be a member of the local authority.

It was reported that, due to the ongoing public health emergency caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus, there had been a significant disruption to the ordinary conduct of the Council’s democratic business and that several of the Council’s Committees had not been able to meet and were unlikely to do so before September 2020 at the earliest.

As a result there were Members who had not been able to attend a meeting for some time and were in danger of being disqualified from office under Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 through no fault of their own.

Council was advised that there was therefore a very real danger that seats on the Council would fall vacant and Members were aware that, under the provisions of Regulation 5 of The Local Government and Police and Crime Commissioner (Coronavirus) (Postponement of Elections and Referendums) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, no by-elections could currently be held to fill vacant local authority seats until, at the earliest, 6 May 2021. This would leave a significant number of the District’s residents with no Ward Member representation on the Council.

Members noted that a later report on this agenda sought approval for a programme of meetings for the period August 2020 to April 2021. Included within that programme of meetings was a proposed meeting of the Full Council to be held on Tuesday 15 September 2020.

It was therefore proposed that Council approved the reasons (namely illness and/or cancellations of meetings due to the Covid-19 public health emergency) for non-attendance for the Members who would otherwise be disqualified from office in the period 22 July 2020 up to and including 15 September 2020 due to a failure to attend meetings for a six month period.

Members had had circulated to them, subsequent to the publication of the Council Book and prior to the commencement of the meeting, an amended Appendix to the Officer report which had been updated to reflect Members’ attendance at recent Committee meetings. That amended Appendix contained the names of two Members referred to above (namely Councillors Broderick and Knowles). In addition, Council was aware that Councillor Knowles was in attendance at this meeting and that therefore she was no longer at risk of being disqualified. This left just Councillor Broderick to whom Section 85 now applied.

Members were reminded that, in the event that Council approved that Councillor Broderick’s reasons for non-attendance (namely long-term illness), that Councillor would gain a further six months’ period of grace, from 21 July 2020, in which they would need to attend a meeting of Council, or a Council Committee etc., before its’ expiry in order to remain a Councillor (or otherwise be subject to a fresh approval of absence by Council prior to that date).

Council was informed that the Council’s Portfolio Holder Constitution Review Working Party was considering how to record the attendance of an elected member at a formal meeting by remote access if they were not participating and this would be included within a future report to Full Council.

Council noted that the Officer report did not cover Councillor Overton’s period of absence which had already been extended until 7 October 2020 under a previous decision by the Chief Executive, in accordance with urgency provisions, following consultation with all Members prior to the new remote meeting regulations being in force.

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, seconded by Councillor G V Guglielmi and:-

RESOLVED that the Council approves the reasons (namely long-term illness) for non-attendance for Councillor Broderick who would otherwise be disqualified from office in the period 22 July 2020 up to and including 15 September 2020 due to a failure to attend meetings for a six month period.