Standards Committee 22 September 2011

Chairman:  Mr W Harvie
Venue:  Function Room 1, Pittwood House, Scunthorpe
Time:  2pm

AGENDA 

  1. Substitutions (if any)
  2. Declarations of personal or personal and prejudicial interests, if any
  3. To take the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2011 as a correct record and authorise the chair to sign
  4. Complaints update
  5. The Localism Bill – oral update
  6. Draft Annual Report 2010 –2011
  7. Any other items which the chairman decides are urgent by reason of special circumstances which must be specified.

MINUTES

PRESENT:  Mr W Harvie (in the chair), Councillors Clark, England, Kirk, Poole, Robinson, and Whiteley.

Mrs Y Aubrey and Messrs W Harvie, J Kitwood and R Nixon.

261  DECLARATIONS OF PERSONAL OR PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS – Councillors Clark, England, Kirk, Poole and Robinson declared a personal and prejudicial interest in Minute 263, as complainants or potentially the subject of one or more of the complaints in the schedule.

262  MINUTES – Resolved – (a) That the minutes of the meeting of this committee held on 16 June 2011, having been printed and circulated amongst the members, be taken as read and correctly recorded and be signed by the chair.

Prior to consideration of the following item, Minute 263, Councillors Clark, England, Kirk, Poole and Robinson, having declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the item, left the meeting. 

263  (2) COMPLAINTS/CODE OF CONDUCT UPDATE – The monitoring officer submitted an update on progress with complaints received.

Six further complaints had been received since the last meeting and would be assessed shortly. Two were ready for determination and meetings would be arranged to deal with these. A total of 13 complaints were currently outstanding.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Councillors Clark, England, Kirk, Poole and Robinson returned to the meeting.

264  THE LOCALISM BILL – The monitoring officer updated members on the current position with the Localism Bill. The Bill was now considered unlikely to receive Royal Assent until early 2012.

One important development during the Bills passage through Parliament was that it had now been accepted that there would have to be a mandatory Code of Conduct. This would be drawn up by bodies representative of local government.

Resolved – (a) That the report be noted, and (b) that consideration be given at a future meeting as to how town and parish councils can be supported in the future.

265  (3) DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT 2010-2011 – The monitoring officer submitted a draft report including as an appendix the Ombudsman’s Annual Review Letter.

Resolved – that the report be approved subject to minor corrections and the inclusion of a personal statement to be written by the chairman.