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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Exe Room, Phoenix House, Tiverton

Contact: Sally Gabriel  Member Services Manager

Link: audio recording

Items
No. Item

12.

APOLOGIES AND SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

To receive any apologies for absence and notices of appointment of Substitute Members (if any).

Minutes:

There were no apologies.

13.

PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.

 

Note:   A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Minutes:

There were no members of the public present.

14.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST UNDER THE CODE OF CONDUCT (00-01-07)

Councillors are reminded of the requirement to declare any interest, including the type of interest, and reason for that interest, either at this stage of the meeting or as soon as they become aware of that interest.

 

Minutes:

Members were reminded of the need to make declarations of interest when necessary.

15.

MINUTES (00-01-15) pdf icon PDF 81 KB

Members to consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on 19 June 2019

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting were approved as true record and signed by the Chairman.

16.

CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS (00-02-00)

To receive any announcements the Chairman of the Committee may wish to make.

Minutes:

The Chairman had no announcements to make.

17.

REGISTERS OF INTERESTS - PARISH COUNCILS (00-02-05) pdf icon PDF 66 KB

To consider a report from the Monitoring Officer setting out her concerns about the failure of a number of parish councillors to complete and return their registers of interests.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee had before it a *report of Monitoring Officer updating it on the number of outstanding registers from parish councils in the district and to consider what should be done to remedy this.

 

The officer outlined the contents of the report highlighting the requirements when it came to the completion of registers of interests: she explained that members were required to submit their completed register of interests to the Monitoring Officer within 28 days of taking office and within 28 days of any changes arising to those interests, and that the same rules applied to parish councillors. She informed the meeting that despite the chasing of individuals, there were still a number of parish registers outstanding.

 

Section 34 of the Localism Act 2011 stated that it was an offence without reasonable excuse to fail to comply with the obligation to submit a register of interests in the manner required by the law which included the 28 day rule and that most codes of conduct would have the same requirements.  It was therefore suggested that those parish councillors were in breach of the Code of Conduct and that this was also an offence under the Localism Act and therefore a matter for the police.  She was willing to write to each councillor individually requesting them to rectify the situation within a tight timescale.

 

Consideration was given to:

 

·         Whether the issue should be dealt with via the Code of Conduct complaints system

·         One more formal letter to try to rectify the situation

·         The impact of police action on local parish councils

·         Whether police time would be justified on what seemed a minor offence

·         Whether other councils were dealing with the same problem

·         The fact that the Monitoring Officer could not ignore the situation

·         The fact that the police were now aware of the issue and the timescales

 

It was therefore

 

RESOLVED that the Monitoring Officer issue a final warning to those councillors in default with the threat that if they failed to comply within 7 days then the police would be informed.

 

(Proposed by Cllr C R Slade and seconded by Cllr Mrs M E Squires)

 

Notes:

 

i)          Cllr Mrs F J Colthorpe requested that her vote against the decision be recorded;

 

ii)         *Report previously circulated, copy attached to minutes.

18.

STANDARDS WORKING GROUP REPORT - REVIEW OF THE JANUARY 2019 REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS IN PUBLIC LIFE (00-19-40) pdf icon PDF 58 KB

To consider a report from the Standards Working Group following its review of the recommendations and best practice set out in the January 2019 report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee had before it a *report of the Monitoring Officer updating it on the Standards Working Group’s consideration of the report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life issued in January 2019.

 

The Chairman outlined the contents of the report and walked through the actions recommended by the working group.

 

Consideration was given to whether council’s should report on separate bodies they had set up or which they owned as part of their annual governance statement and whether those bodies should abide by the Nolan Principles of openness and publish their board agendas and minutes.  The Monitoring Officer stated that she found this recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life unusual, bearing in mind commercial confidentiality and sensitivity and she felt that any of this information should not be put into the public domain. As stated within the notes, she had looked at some of the board agendas and minutes in confidence and found that those documents particularly the minutes did contain personal data and commercially sensitive information on 3 Rivers and third party owners, developers and contractors.

 

It was therefore:

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations of the Standards Working Group be agreed and that the actions taken to date be noted.

 

(Proposed by the Chairman)

 

Further:

 

RECOMMENDED to Council that the consequential revisions to the Code of Conduct as set out in part 3 of the report be approved and that the revised Code be adopted.

 

(Proposed by the Chairman)

 

Note:  *report previously circulated, copy attached to minutes.

19.

THE CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MEMBERS (00-26-44) pdf icon PDF 71 KB

To consider whether either a policy on social media or a change to the Code of Conduct is required. Members are referred also to the recent open letter from the Committee on Standards in Public Life to all public office holders, which is reproduced in the reports pack.

Minutes:

The Committee had before it an *open letter from Jonathan Evans, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. The Monitoring Officer stated that we lived in a social media age and that the use of social media was an instant platform for members to engage with their electorate, however there was a difference between member’s public and personal life and that members would have to be very careful to separate these.

 

Consideration was given to:

 

·         The use of social media in a public and private capacity

·         The possibility of a policy on social media being progressed

·         There had been some social media guidelines provided to members by the Communications Team which had included a reminder about the risk of using social media

·         Whether the working group should be reconvened to consider such a policy

 

It was therefore:

 

RESOLVED that the working group comprising of Cllrs C J Eginton, L D Taylor, A Wilce and Mrs N Woollatt be reconvened to consider the need for a policy on the use of social media by members and that the findings of the working group be considered by the Committee at its next meeting.

 

(Proposed by Cllr C R Slade and seconded by Cllr Mrs N Woollatt)

 

Note:  *open letter previously circulated, copy attached to minutes.

 

20.

COMPLAINTS

To receive an update from the Monitoring Officer with regard to any on-going complaints being dealt with.  This will be in generic terms and will not provide any information that might identify the complainant, the relevant councillor or in any way set out the Monitoring Officer’s views on the matter.

 

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer provided an update regarding the number of complaints received since the previous meeting.

 

21.

IDENTIFICATION OF ITEMS FOR THE NEXT MEETING

To consider items for the next meeting of the committee.

Minutes:

It was AGREED that the following be considered at future meetings of the committee:

 

·         Report from the Standards Working Group on a social media policy

·         Update on the outcome of the Register of Interests issue

·         Training needs for the committee

·         The LGA were preparing a draft model Code of Conduct which would be considered when it was available

·         Complaints update

·         Information regarding the new Independent Person if appropriate.