Agenda item

The Leader presented a reported arising from work at two recent meetings of the Constitutional Review Working Party.  Members were advised that a number of changes to the Scheme of Delegations to Officers were proposed in the report, with some stylistic changes having been made in accordance with the Monitoring Officer’s power to make amendments following changes to legislation, job titles and to reallocate functions.  The report proposed the introduction of an Appointments Committee, which could appoint or dismiss relevant senior officers in circumstances where the Chief Executive was not in a position to act.  Changes had been suggested to Members’ Role Descriptors, though Members were asked to note that these were only intended to be indicative and to help new Members.

The Constitutional Review Working Party had proposed that the Council should no longer receive the minutes of meetings of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee, Licensing Committee or Planning Committee where these simply needed to be noted.  In cases where these Committees made recommendations these would be reported on to Council for consideration.  Members noted that by no longer considering these minutes at every Council meeting this would help to reduce the amount of paperwork at Council meetings and would contribute to moving towards paperless meetings.

RESOLVED that

1)        the amendments to the existing delegations detailed at Appendix 1 to the report, made in accordance with the Monitoring Officer’s power to make amendments following changes to legislation, job titles and to reallocate functions, be noted;

2)        the additional delegations requested for Community, Environmental and Leisure and Cultural Services, as detailed at Appendix 2 to the report, be approved

3)        the proposed changes to the Housing delegations, as detailed at Appendix 3 to the report, be approved;

4)        the proposed changes to the HR delegations, as detailed at Appendix 4, be approved;

5)        an Appointments Committee be established and the proposed terms of reference for this Committee, as detailed at Appendix 5 to the report, be approved;

6)        the minutes of meetings of the Planning, Licensing and Audit,
Governance and Standards Committees, where no
recommendations have been made, should no longer be
received at meetings of Council for noting;

7)        the updated Planning Code of Practice, as detailed at Appendix 6 to the report, be approved;

8)        the Council’s constitution be amended so that the power to
determine all employment and health and safety policies is delegated to the Head of Transformation and Organisational Development, following consultation with the Corporate Management Team, the Joint Corporate Health, Safety and Welfare Committee (where applicable), the Leader of the Council and the relevant Portfolio Holder;

9)        trained substitutes should be permitted to serve at meetings of
the Grants Panel; and

10)      the proposed changes to the Members’ Role Descriptors, as detailed at Appendix 7 to the report, be approved.