Agenda item

Report number DEM011 by the Democracy Services Manager.

                                                                (Enclosure)

 

DECISION:

 

(1)  Noting and accepting the wish of the Labour Group to relinquish its allocated seat on the Development Control Committee and to nominate Councillor Sam Jalili for that seat, to approve the following arrangements for the allocation of committee seats to members based on political groups’ aggregate membership as a proportional share of Full Council seats:

 

Committee	Conservative	Independent	Liberal Dem’t	Labour	Total
Development Control	10	4	3		17
Licensing	7	3	1		11
Resources PDG	5	1	1		7
Communities PDG	4	2	1		7
Engagement PDG	4	2		1	7
Scrutiny Committee	7	3	1		11
Constitution Committee	3	1	1		5
Governance & Audit Committee	3	1	1		5
Standards Committee	Political balance does not apply				4
Chief Executive’s appraisal panel	3	1			4

 

 

(2)                   To endorse the names of the members of the Standards Committee as submitted by the Leaders of the three largest Groups on the Council to the Chief Executive:

 

Councillor Lovelock M.B.E., Councillor Farrar, Councillor Moore, and Councillor Mike Williams

 

(3)                   To approve the following committee memberships:

 

Development Control Committee:

 

Councillor Cook

Councillor Exton

CouncillorMrs Gaffigan

Councillor Harvey

CouncillorHelyar

Councillor Higgs

Councillor Holmes

Councillor Howard

CouncillorMrs Jalili

Councillor Sam Jalili

CouncillorMrs Kaberry-Brown

Councillor Vic Kerr

CouncillorNewcombe-Jones

CouncillorParkin

Councillor Scott

Councillor Turner

Councillor Avril Williams

 

Licensing Committee

 

CouncillorMrs Bosworth

CouncillorBrough

Councillor Broughton

CouncillorChivers

Councillor Exton

Councillor Howard

CouncillorMrs Radley

Councillor Russell

Councillor Turner

Councillor Wheat

Councillor Mike Williams

 

Scrutiny Committee

 

CouncillorMrs Bosworth

Councillor Farrar

CouncillorHearmon

CouncillorHelyar

Councillor Higgs

CouncillorJoynson

CouncillorMrs Kaberry-Brown

CouncillorMrs Judy Smith

Councillor Thompson

Councillor Andrea Webster

Councillor Mike Williams

 

Resources Policy Development Group

 

Councillor Adams

Councillor Craft

CouncillorMrs Maureen Jalili

Councillor Bob Sandall

Councillor Scott

CouncillorMrs Judy smith

Councillor Stokes

 

Engagement Policy Development Group

 

Councillor Cook

Councillor Jock Kerr

Councillor McBride

Councillor Russell

Councillor Selby

Councillor Taylor

Councillor Tom Webster

 

Communities Policy Development Group

 

CouncillorBisnauthsing

Councillor Miss Channell

Councillor Nicholson

Councillor Martin-Mayhew

Councillor Stephens

Councillor Thompson

Councillor Wootten

 

Constitution Committee

 

CouncillorJoynson

Councillor Martin-Mayhew

Councillor Susan Sandall

Councillor Andrea Webster

Councillor Wootten

 

Governance and Audit Committee

 

Councillor Dawson

Councillor Harvey

Councillor Sam Jalili

Councillor Lovelock

Councillor Moore

 

Chief Executive’s Appraisal Panel

 

Councillor Carpenter

CouncillorHearmon

CouncillorMrs Neal

 

 

Members had before them report number DEM011 which directed the Council to consider its appointment of members to committees, policy development groups, and the Chief Executive’s appraisal panel in accordance with the Constitution.

 

CouncillorParkin stated that the authority had been referred to the East Midlands Local Government Agency because of its current poor performance on determining major planning applications. To make the development control committee more effective he proposed that the size of the committee be reduced from its present 17 members down to 13 with the resultant political balance of 8 Conservatives, 3 Independents, I Liberal Democrat, and I Labour.  The motion was seconded.  The Labour Group indicated that it wished to relinquish its seat to Councillor Sam Jalili.

 

The Chairman announced that, in fairness to the opposition groups and to allow them time to discuss the proposed reduction in membership, a five minute adjournment would now take place.

 

[The Council meeting stood adjourned at 2.51p.m. and resumed at 2.56p.m.]

 

Discussion then ensued during which strong concerns were expressed by a number of members from all groups at the proposal to reduce the size of the development control committee.  Reasons given for opposing this motion were that it was not supported by any officer recommendation, nor any proposal to refer the issue to a policy development group for consideration.  Decisions made by the development control committee could have far reaching consequences for the district’s towns and villages.  The rules precluded a member of that committee voting on a deferred application if he or she had not been present at the meeting when the application was first presented.  Given that it was possible for there to be absentees and members who could not vote because of declared interests, this could mean that an application could be determined by a very small number of members.  It was suggested that this was not in the best interests of the public.  In supporting opposition to the motion, the point was made that the mover of the motion had not given clear and sound reasons to reduce the size of the committee.  The workload of the committee was considerable and to reduce the number would place a greater burden on fewer members.  Comments were made about the good, non partisan working relationship between the existing committee members and there was a suggestion made that some of the present problems around major applications was down to capacity at officer level.

 

A constitutional point was raised as to whether this motion was permissible given that it was not an agenda item.  The Chief Executive advised that he was satisfied that the agenda identified this item as size of committee is part of the determination of membership of committees.  An amendment was moved and seconded to increase the size of the committee from 17 to 19 members.  The Chief Executive advised that the amendment effectively negated the motion and could not be put.  After further speakers had made their contribution to the debate a vote was taken on the motion to reduce the committee size to 13 members. The motion was lost and the committee size remains at 17 members.

 

The Council then considered the existing memberships as appended to the report and, with the exception of a few amendments notified at the meeting by the respective group leaders, the memberships were moved en block and carried following a vote.