Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Fountain Conference Centre, Howbery Park, Crowmarsh Gifford

Contact: Steven Corrigan  Democratic Services Manager

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of chairman

To elect a chairman of Council for the municipal year 2017/18.

 

Minutes:

On behalf of Council Mr Harrison, chairman of the council, thanked Mrs Davies, who had recently resigned a councillor for Didcot South, for her service to the council and wished her well in her new life.

Mr Harrison reviewed his year as chairman of the council, thanked councillors for all their support, and the vice-chairman and officers for their assistance during the year. During the year he had attended many engagements and raised funds for his chosen charities being Ministry Aviation Fellowship, British Heart Foundation and British Liver Trust.  Details of the engagements attended and funds raised will be circulated to councillors via the weekly councillor newsletter – In Focus.

Mr Cotton and Mr Turner paid tribute to Mr Harrison in recognition of his work as chairman of the council during the past year.

 

Mrs Matelot was nominated as chairman for the 2017/18 municipal year.

 

RESOLVED:  to elect Mrs Matelot as chairman of the council for the 2017/18 municipal year.

 

Mr Harrison presented Mrs Matelot with the chain of office. 

Mrs Matelot read out the oath of office, signed her declaration of acceptance of office, presented Mr Harrison with the past chairman’s badge, presented her husband with the escort’s badge and made an acceptance speech. She provided details of her charity for the forthcoming year – Oxford Homeless Pathways.

Mrs Matelot in the chair.

 

2.

Appointment of vice-chairman

To appoint a vice-chairman of Council for the municipal year 2017/18.

 

Minutes:

With the agreement of Council the chairman altered the order of the agenda to consider the appointment of the vice-chairman for the 2017/18 municipal year later in the meeting.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 122 KB

To adopt and sign as a correct record the Council minutes of the meeting held on 20 April 2017 (attached). 

Minutes:

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 20 April 2017 as a correct record and agree that the chairman sign them as such.

 

4.

Declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

Minutes:

None.

5.

Urgent business and chairman's announcements

To receive notification of any matters which the chairman determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman. 

Minutes:

The chairman provided housekeeping information and invited councillors to join her for refreshments following the meeting.

 

 

6.

Public participation

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak on items on the agenda. 

Minutes:

None.

7.

Appointments to committees, panels and joint committees for 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 125 KB

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic services on the appointment to those committees required to be politically balanced together with the Community Grants Panel, Licensing Acts Committee and joint committees and to authorise any consequential changes to the constitution(attached). 

 

Minutes:

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services on the appointment of those committees and joint committees which are required to be politically balanced together with the Community Grants Panel, the Licensing Acts Committee and appointments to joint bodies.

The chairman referred to the following recommendation tabled at the meeting covering these appointments and to reflect the allocation of the vacant committee positions.

 

That for the 2017/18 municipal year Council:

1.     appoints the committees and panels for the 2017/18 year and allocate seats to each political group as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

2.     allocates the vacant seat on the Scrutiny Committee, the Joint Scrutiny Committee and the Community Governance and Electoral Issues committee to the Opposition Forum Group;

3.     allocates a vacant seat on the Community Grants Panel to the Opposition Forum Group;

4.     allocates the vacant seat on the Appeals Panel to Paul Harrison;

5.     appoints councillors and preferred substitutes to sit on the committees and panels as set out in the scheduled circulate at the meeting;

6.     appoints councillors to the Licensing Acts Committee as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

7.     appoints councillors to the Community Grants Panel as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

8.     appoints chairmen and vice-chairmen as set out in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

9.      appoints Nigel Champken-Woods as the council’s representative on the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Lorraine Hillier as substitute;

10.  appoints Ian White as the council’s representative on the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel;

11.  authorises the head of legal and democratic services to make appointments to any vacant committee or panel and substitute positions in accordance with the wishes of the relevant group leader;

12.  authorises the head of legal and democratic services to amend the constitution as necessary to reflect the arrangements set out in this report.

 

RESOLVED: to

1.    appoint the following committees, joint committees and panels for the 2017/18 year and to appoint the membership, substitutes and chairmen as indicated to sit on them:

Names

Planning Committee, 11 Members

Conservative (10)

Opposition Forum Group (1)

Joan Bland

David Turner

Anthony Dearlove

Lorraine Hillier

 

Elaine Hornsby

 

Sue Lawson (Vice-Chairman)

 

Jeannette Matelot

 

Toby Newman (Chairman)

 

Richard Pullen

 

Margaret Turner

 

Ian White

 

PREFERRED SUBSTITUTES

 

Conservative (10)

Opposition Forum Group (1)

Charles Bailey

Stefan Gawrysiak

Kevin Bulmer

 

Nigel Champken-Woods

 

Steve Connel

 

Pat Dawe

 

Stephen Harrod

 

Imran Lokhon

 

Vacancy

 

Vacancy

 

Vacancy

 

 

Names

Scrutiny Committee, 9 Members

Conservative (8)

Opposition Forum Group (1)

Anna Badcock

David Turner

Steve Connel

 

Pat Dawe

 

Anthony Dearlove

 

Elaine Hornsby

 

Richard Pullen (Chairman)

 

John Walsh (Vice-Chairman)

 

Ian White

 

PREFERRED SUBSTITUTES

 

Conservative (8)

Opposition Forum Group (1)

Charles Bailey

Stefan Gawrysiak

David Dodds

Will Hall

 

Stephen Harrod

 

Lorraine Hillier

 

Sue Lawson

 

Toby Newman

 

Margaret Turner

 

 

 

Names

Joint Scrutiny Committee, 5 Members

Conservative (4)

Opposition Forum Group (1)

David Dodds

David Turner

Sue Lawson

 

Richard Pullen (Co-Chairman)

 

John Walsh

 

PREFERRED SUBSTITUTES

 

Conservative (4)

Opposition Forum Group (1)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Councillors' allowances scheme pdf icon PDF 105 KB

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic services and the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel on a revised councillors’ allowances scheme to run from 1 April 2017 (attached).

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services and the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel on a revised councillors’ allowances scheme to run from 1 April 2017. 

 

Mr Cotton moved and Mr Turner seconded a motion to accept the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration panel subject to:

 

a.            no membership threshold on the payment of the special responsibility allowance to the Leader of the main opposition group;

b.            the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Grants Panel;

c.            the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee;

 

Council agreed that the leader of the opposition fulfils a valuable role irrespective of the number of members of the group and as such there should not be a membership threshold on the payment of a special responsibility allowance. The role of the chairman of the Community Grants Panel is responsible for the council’s high profile revenue and capital grants schemes which are of great importance to communities within the district. The panel considers multiple rounds of grants applications and is responsible for bringing forward recommendations on and implementing changes to our grants policies and as such the post of chairman should attract a special responsibility allowance. The post of chairman of Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committeeshould be treated as one of the council’s main committees. In light of the unitary bid there will be a need to review the role of the committee to include wider local government reorganisation issues. If the unitary bid proposals proceed, this will include implementation issues such as the role of the area executive boards.

 

Mr Cotton, leader of the council, advised that officers had removed information from the website that provided details of individual councillor feedback. Officers would discuss the matter with South East Employers and ensure any comments provided at future reviews remained confidential.

 

Mrs Murphy, deputy leader of the council, stated that she intended to waive part of her deputy leader’s allowance in the current financial year in order to meet the cost of the additional special responsibility allowances set out in b and c of the above motion.

 

RESOLVED: to

 

1.         accept the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel subject to the following changes:

a.    no membership threshold on the payment of the special responsibility allowance to the Leader of the main opposition group;

b.    the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Grants Panel;

c.    the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee;

 

2.         to agree that the additional allowances be met from contingency if they cannot be met from existing budgets;

 

3.         authorise the head of legal and democratic services to finalise a councillors’ allowances scheme based on the decision in 1 and to make any consequential amendments to the constitution;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Review of the council's constitution pdf icon PDF 106 KB

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic services and monitoring officer on proposed amendments to the council’s constitution (attached).

 

Minutes:

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services and monitoring officer on proposed amendments to the council’s constitution. 

 

David Turner, a member of the Joint Constitution Review Group, introduced the recommendations as agreed by the review group and thanked officers for their work in producing a streamlined constitution.

RESOLVED: to

1.     agree to include a three minute restriction on the length of each public question or statement at the Scrutiny, Joint Audit and Governance, General Licensing, Licensing Acts and Joint Staff Committee;

 

2.     agree that at special meetings questions and statements from members of the public must relate to the item due to be discussed;

 

3.     amend delegation 1.1 (c)(iii) and 1.6 to the head of planning as set out in paragraphs 8, 9 and 11 of the report of the head of legal and democratic services and monitoring officer to Council at its meeting on 18 May 2017;

 

4.     include the delegation to the relevant head of service in respect of ward councillor budgets in the council’s constitution as set out in paragraph 12 of the report of the head of legal and democratic services and monitoring officer to Council at its meeting on 18 May 2017;

 

5.     authorise the head of legal and democratic services to update the constitution to reflect any changes in staff responsibilities;

 

6.    authorise the head of legal and democratic services to make any minor or consequential amendments to the constitution for consistency and to reflect the councils’ style guide. 

10.

Extension of term of office of independent persons for code of conduct matters pdf icon PDF 114 KB

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic services and monitoring officer on an extension to the term of office of one of the council’s independent persons (attached).

Minutes:

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services and monitoring officer on an extension to the term of office for one of the council’s independent persons.

 

RESOLVED: to authorise the monitoring officer to extend the term of office of George Green, one of the council’s independent persons for code of conduct matters, to 30 September 2019. 

 

 

 

11.

Report of the leader of the council

To receive any updates from the leader of the council.

 

Minutes:

The leader of the council announced the departure of Anna Badcock and Will Hall from the Cabinet and the appointment of Felix Bloomfield and David Nimmo-Smith to the Cabinet. He placed on record his thanks to Anna Badcock and Will Hall for their hard work.

 

He advised Council of the following portfolios:

 

John Cotton: Leader, corporate strategy, communications and strategic policy (including local plan)

 

Felix Bloomfield: development management and building control

 

Elizabeth Gillespie: community safety, legal, democratic services, electoral services, licensing and grants

 

Tony Harbour: technical services (including environmental health, grounds maintenance and waste)

 

Lynn Lloyd: leisure services, arts and housing

 

Jane Murphy: Deputy Leader and finance

 

David Nimmo-Smith: 5 councils partnership and corporate services contracts, IT and HR

 

Robert Simister: development and regeneration including property, economic development, Didcot Garden Town and Berinsfield

 

He also advised that Elizabeth Gillespie would be the council’s representative on both the Safer Oxfordshire Partnership Oversight Committee and South and Vale Community Safety Partnership.

 

He advised that, due to the forthcoming parliamentary election, there would be a delay in a decision on the single unitary council for Oxfordshire. In response to a question, he anticipated progress being made on the future use of the former Crowmarsh council office site once a decision had been reached on the single unitary council for Oxfordshire bid.  

 

12.

Adjournment

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

To adjourn the meeting of the Council to permit meetings to take place of the Licensing Acts Committee and General Licensing Committee to appoint their licensing panels.

 

The Council adjourned at 6.35pm.

 

The Council reconvened at 6.40pm.

 

13.

Appointment of vice-chairman

Minutes:

Mr Lokhon was nominated as vice-chairman for the 2017/18 municipal year.

 

RESOLVED:  to appoint Mr Lokhon as vice-chairman of the council for the 2017/18 municipal year.

 

Contact us - Democratic services

Phone icon

01235 422520
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)

Address icon

South Oxfordshire District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon
OX14 3JE