PLEASE NOTE VENUE
CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE
AGENDA
Friday 24 August 2007
at 2.00pm
in Conference Room 2
at the Belle Vue, Community, Sports and Yout h Centre,
Ke ndal Road, Hartlepool.
MEMBERS: CONSTITUTIO N COMMITTEE:
The Mayor , Stuart Dr ummond
Councillors Brash, Fenw ick, Flintoff, James, A Mars hall, J Marshall, Preece,
Richardson, Simmons and Y oung.
1.
AP OLOGIES FOR ABSE NCE
2.
TO RE CEIVE ANY DECLARATIONS OF I NTE RES T BY MEMBERS
3.
MINUTES
3.1
3.2
4.
ITEMS RE QUIRING DE CISION
4.1
5.
To confirm the m inutes of the Com mittee held on 6 July 2007
To receive t he m inutes of the m eeting of the Con stitution Wo rking Group held
on 13 Augu st 2007 (to follow)
Chief Solicitor’s Briefing Report (to follow)
ANY OTHER I TEMS WHI CH THE CHAI RM AN CONSI DE RS ARE URGE NT
W :\CSW ORD\DEMO CRATIC SERVICES\COMMITTEES\CO NSTITUTION CTTEE\AGENDAS\AG ENDAS - 2007-20 08\07.0 8.24 - CONSTITUTIO N CO MMITTEE
AG ENDA.DO C/1
Hartlepo ol Bor oug h Co uncil
3.1
Constitution Committee - Minutes and Decision Record – 6 July 2007
CONSTITUT ION COMMITTEE
MINUTES AND DECISION RECORD
6 July 2007
The meeting c ommenc ed at 2.00 pm at Belle Vue Community Spor ts and
Youth Centr e, Kendal Road, Hartle pool
Present:
Councillor
Car l Richar dson ( In the Chair)
Councillors
Bob Flintoff, Ann Marshall, Arthur Preece and Chris Simmons
Officers :
Tony Br ow n, Chief Solic itor
Denise Wimpenny , Pr inc ipal De mocratic Serv ices Officer
5. Apo logie s for Absence
Apologies for abs enc e w ere s ubmitted on behalf of the Mayor , Stuart
Drummond, Jonathan Bras h and Mar jorie James.
6. Declarations of interest b y me mbers
None.
7. Confirmation of the minutes of the mee tings of the
Constitution Committee he ld on 1 June 2007 and the
Working Group he ld on 22 June 2007
The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 1 June, w ere confir med
subject to the follow ing amendment:Minute No 4 – Paragr aph 5 be amended to read:“Additional appointments to the c ons ultees on Constitution Issues – At pr esent
on issues suc h as Spec ia l Ur gency Notic es, the Chair of Scrutiny w as
consulted, and in his/her abs ence, the Chair of Council, in his/her abs enc e,
the V ice- Chair of Council.”
The Minutes of the meeting of the W or king Gr oup held on 22 June 2007 w ere
receiv ed.
8. Ame ndments to the Constitution
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(Chief Solicitor)
Hartlepo ol Bor ough Council
3.1
Constitution Committee - Minutes and Decision Record – 6 July 2007
The Chief Solic itor invited the Co mmittee to consider suggestions made by the
Constitution Wor king Group at their meeting on 22 June 2007 for amendment
of the Constitution.
Democratic Deficit
It w as noted that the terms of office of the Chair man of the Council, the ViceChair man of the Counc il and the Chair of the Scrutiny Co-or dinating
Committee expired in May 2008. Each of these Members had a r esponsibility
in relation to Constitution prov isions for call-in and urgency and special
urgency, details of w hich w ere outlined in the report. Conc ern had been
expressed that if all of the Members referr ed to w ere not re- elected, the
relev ant functions could not be disc harged in the ‘interr egnum’ betw een
election and Annual Counc il.
Me mbers had cons ider ed the options av ailable to deal w ith this situation w hich
could inc lude:●
●
●
●
delegation to an officer
id entification of a member by reference to eg seniority
dis apply ing the r elevant pr ocedures in s uc h circumstanc es, or
no ac tion
How ever, the W or king Group’s preferr ed option w as to involv e the Scr utiny
Chairs as a fall bac k position in the event of the absence of all of the members
id entified in the Constitution. This could be achieved by the inser tion in each
of the pr ovis ions of the follow ing s entenc e:“If none of the identified members is av ailable for w hatev er reason the matter
shall be referr ed to [suc h of] the Chairs of the Scr utiny Forums [as are
available w ithin 24 hours of the need for a decision being identified]”
Me mbers s upported the ins ertion of the abov e s entenc e in eac h of the
provis ions.
Constitution W orking Gr oup – Business Managem ent Group
Arising from corres pondence w ith a Me mber, the Constitution Wor king Gr oup
had c ons ider ed the need for retention of the pr ovis ion in Ar ticle 15 of the
Constitution in relation to Managing Council Business . The composition of the
Business Management Group w as set out in the report.
It w as noted that the Sub- Gr oup had not met and the Chief Solicitor indic ated
that to the best of his r ecollection, the only iss ue to w hich the r emit of the SubGr oup w ould be relevant w as in the c urrent w ork pr ogr amme relating to the
decis ion making pr ocess es of the Local Str ategic Partners hip. Members
noted that membership of the Business Management Group w as made up of
me mbers of the Constitution Wor king Gr oup.
The Chief Solicitor advised that having confir med that the Bus iness
07.07. 06 – Constitution Ctte e – Minut es
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Hartlepo ol Bor ough Council
Constitution Committee - Minutes and Decision Record – 6 July 2007
3.1
Management Group did not figure in the Modular Cons titution Guidance
issued by the DETR in 2000, there w ere no constitutional difficult ies in
remov ing this from the Constitution.
De cision
(i)
In r elation to the democratic defic it issue, that Counc il be recommended
to ins ert the proposed s entenc e as outlined above in eac h of the
provis ions of Par t 4 of the Constitution.
(ii)
That Council be rec ommended to delete Artic le 15.03 from the
Constitution r elating to the requirement for a Business Management
Gr oup.
9. Any Othe r Business – Appointment of Substitute s
Follow ing a query receiv ed by the Chair, the Committee disc ussed w hat
arrangements w ere in plac e to ensur e substitutes receiv ed all agenda papers
inc luding “to follow ” papers in advance of the meeting and w hether they had
sufficient time to read the papers.
Members noted that it w as the
responsibility of the Me mber appoin ting the substitute to pass on the papers.
The Chief Solicitor pr ov ided c larification regarding the proc edure for the
appointment of substitutes and stated that the Pr incipal Democratic Serv ices
Officer had prepar ed a detailed letter of clarific ation in r espons e to this query.
Discussion ensued in r elation to the option of appointing a per manent
substitute, the r ole of the Democr atic Services Team in facilitating these
arrangements and the new proposed arr angements w hich w ould allow
Me mbers to appoint s ubs titutes immediately pr ior to c ommencement of the
meeting pr ovided notific ation had been pr ov ided to a member of the
Democr atic Services team.
CHA IRMAN
COUNCILLOR C RICHA RDSO N
07.07. 06 – Constitution Ctte e – Minut es
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Hartlepo ol Bor ough Council