Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer to submit a report which seeks approval for a set of documents which will form part of the new Constitution, following approval of the Council’s new governance arrangements at the Extraordinary Meeting of the Council held on 21 November 2018.

A verbal update will be provided at the meeting.

Previously circulated with the agenda was a report prepared by the Monitoring Officer which referred to the  approval of the Council’s new governance arrangements at the Extraordinary Meeting of the Council held on 21 November 2018.  As a consequence, the Council was now asked to approve a set of documents, as listed and appended to the report, which would form part of the new Constitution to take account of the change in decision-making structure to the Leader and Cabinet model.  Following the Governance Committee on 5 February 2019, some proposed changes had been made to the published Appendix A7 – Access to Information Procedure, which was circulated to Members at the meeting.

Councillor Cumbers thanked the Director for Legal and Democratic Services for her work on the new Constitution as well as the Members who had contributed.  She referred to an updated Appendix A7 that had been circulated to Members at the meeting.  Councillor Cumbers proposed the recommendations including the updated Appendix A7.

Councillor Simpson seconded the motion and endorsed the hard work that had gone into producing these parts of the Constitution.

On being put the vote, the motion was unanimously carried.

RESOLVED that

(1)       Appendix A1 - Introduction, Summary & Explanation be approved effective  from the  Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(2)       Appendix A2 - Introduction to Decision-making be approved effective from the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(3)       Appendix A3 - Diagrammatic explanation of Decision-making be approved effective from the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(4)       Appendix A4 - Council/Committees Procedure Rules be approved effective from the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(5)       Appendix A5 - Call In Procedure Rules be approved effective from  the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(6)       Appendix A6 - Substitute Procedure Rules be approved effective from the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(7)       Updated Appendix A7- Access to Information Rules be approved effective from the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(8)       Appendix A8 - Employment Procedure Rules be approved and adopted following the conclusion of the Annual Meeting in May 2019;

(9)       delegated authority be given to the Director for Legal and Democratic Services for

(a)  amendments to the constitution as a result of comments received by Members;

(b)  changes to the structure and layout of the constitution;

(c)   minor amendments (as and when required) that in her opinion do not substantially alter the content of the constitution; and/or

(d)  any changes to the Constitution as required by the law.