Agenda and minutes

To receive the apologies of any Member who is unable to attend this meeting.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor Fry and Parish Councillor Matthews.

To invite Councillors to declare any interests they may have in items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 10 July 2008.

(Minutes attached)

RESOLVED that

the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10July 2008 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To consider any exceptional updates on matters raised at the previous meeting and not separately listed on the agenda.

There were no matters arising.

To seek the Standards Committee’s views on proposed changes to the Members’ Code of Conduct and comments on the proposed Employee Code of Conduct.

(Report attached)

The Head of Legal, Democratic & Property in her role as Monitoring Officer informed Members that the Department for Communities and Local Government was seeking comments on the proposed changes to the Members’ Code of Conduct and also comments on the proposed Employee Code of Conduct.

Members discussed each question in Appendix 1 individually and were in agreement with all comments except for those outlined below.

RESOLVED that

1)     the report be noted;

2)     the responses to specific questions at Appendix 1 be endorsed with the following suggested amendments:

1.2           that paragraph 2 be amended to include Police Cautions;

1.3           that ‘deliberately’ should be added to the quote in paragraph 1;

1.6      that members felt it was not appropriate for them to make any comment on the Employee Code of Conduct.

To consider any Chair / Member updates not separately covered on the agenda list, including brief feedback from any Seminars or Conferences.

(Oral report)

The Chair and members of the Committee reported on a training session on Members’ Code of Conduct they had attended at Bromsgrove that had proved useful.

To consider any report in relation to Feckenham Parish Council.

(Oral report)

The Parish Council representative informed members that, as this was her first meeting, she had no further report to make.