Agenda item

To enable Council to give consideration to a proposed programme of meetings for the period August 2020 to April 2021.

Minutes:

The Council had before it a report of the Assistant Director (Governance) & Monitoring Officer (A.4) which sought its approval of a proposed programme of meetings for the period August 2020 to April 2021.

 

Members were aware that the Cabinet was required by the Constitution, to submit for formal approval to the Annual Meeting of the Council a programme of meetings for the forthcoming Municipal Year. However, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and the ensuing global public health emergency, meetings of the Council (including the Annual Meeting), its Committees and the Cabinet had been unable to take place during March, April and early May 2020. Legislation had then been passed that permitted Councils not to hold an Annual Meeting in 2020.

 

In addition, Parliament had enacted The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 (the “Regulations”) which enabled local authorities to hold meetings by ‘virtual means’ such as video conferencing and to ‘live stream’ those meetings in order to enable the public to watch, and/or listen to, the proceedings.

 

Council was informed that, with the approval of the relevant Chairmen, two Cabinet meetings, three Planning Committee meetings, two Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee meetings, two Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings and one Standards Committee meeting had been arranged and successfully held under the new Regulations.

 

It had therefore been considered timely that a full programme of meetings for the remainder of what would have been the 2020/21 municipal year be submitted for Cabinet’s endorsement at its meeting held on 26 June 2020 in order that it could then be submitted for approval to this meeting of the Full Council.

 

Further to minute 22 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 26 June 2020 a draft programme of meetings for the period August 2020 to April 2021 was set out as an Appendix to the Officer report. (The dates of meetings from  September 2020 onwards were the same dates as had been included within the published agenda for the March 2020 Cabinet meeting though Members were aware, of course, that that meeting had had to be cancelled due to the country going into ‘lockdown’ for the Covid-19 emergency.)

 

At that meeting Cabinet had decided that:-

 

“(a) the programme of meetings for the Council and Committees, as set out in the Appendix to item A.2 of the Report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder, be approved, in principle, and be submitted to the Full Council for formal approval; and

 

(b) the proposed dates for All Member Briefings be noted.”

 

Council was advised that the meetings of the Full Council, the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Human Resources and Council Tax Committee, the Licensing and Registration Committee and the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee would normally commence at 7.30 p.m. 

 

Meetings of the Planning Committee and the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee would normally commence at 6.00 p.m. Meetings of the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee would be arranged as and when required.

 

Meetings of the Standards Committee would normally commence at 10.00 a.m. and meetings of the Audit Committee would normally commence at 10.30 a.m.

 

Council was aware that it was expected that all meetings would continue to be held by virtual means in accordance with the Regulations for the foreseeable future.

 

However, if it did prove possible to hold ‘physical’ meetings either in whole, or in part, then meetings of the Full Council would usually be held in the Princes Theatre, at the Town Hall, Clacton-on-Sea. Meetings of the above-mentioned Committees would usually be held in the Council Chamber at the Council Offices, Thorpe Road, Weeley (subject to the provisos on the Council Offices, Weeley set out below) with the exception of the Audit Committee which normally met in the Connaught Room, at the Town Hall, Clacton-on-Sea.

 

Members were aware that Cabinet meetings were fixed by the Leader of the Council in accordance with Article 7.08 Cabinet Procedure Rules sub-section 1.1 of the Council’s Constitution and that therefore the scheduling et cetera may change. If able to be held in a physical location then the public meetings of the Cabinet would normally commence at 10.30 a.m. in the Essex Hall, at the Town Hall, Station Road, Clacton-on-Sea.

 

The programme did not show meetings of the Sub-Committees, which were arranged either at meetings of the relevant Sub-Committee, or from time to time when required.

 

Dates for All Member Briefings had been included in order to assist Members in keeping their diaries up-to-date.

 

Closure of the Council Offices at Thorpe Road, Weeley

 

Council was aware that, as part of the “Transforming Tendring” project, the Council Offices at Weeley would be closed and the site disposed of, with the departments currently based at Weeley being moved to Clacton-on-Sea. This would obviously mean that the current Council Chamber at Weeley would then no longer be available for Committee etc. meetings.

 

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

 

RESOLVED that –

 

(a)       the programme of meetings for the Council and Committees, as set out in the Appendix to item A.4 of the Report of the Assistant Director (Governance) & Monitoring Officer, be approved; and

 

(b)       the proposed dates for All Member Briefings be noted.

 

 

 

Supporting documents: