Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of 2013/14. 

Councillor Mrs Diane Chambers was elected as Chairman for the remainder of 2013/2014. 

To approve the record of the meeting held on 6 February 2013.

The record of the meeting held on 6 February 2013 and the record of the Joint Meeting of All Committees were agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct. 

To receive apologies for absence. 

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs Diane Chambers and Hicks. 

The Chairman will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

The Chairman reminded Members that the minutes of the Joint Meeting of All Committees had been declared urgent as they had been inadvertently omitted from the original agenda. 

A member need only disclose at any meeting the existence of a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) in a matter to be considered at that meeting if that DPI has not been entered on the disclosable pecuniary interests register maintained by the Monitoring Officer.

A member disclosing a DPI at a meeting must thereafter notify the Monitoring Officer in writing of that interest within 28 days from the date of disclosure at the meeting.

A member may not participate in a discussion of or vote on any matter in which he or she has a DPI (both those already registered and those disclosed at the meeting) and must withdraw from the room during such discussion/vote.

Members may choose to voluntarily disclose a DPI at a meeting even if it is registered on the council’s register of disclosable pecuniary interests but there is no legal requirement to do so.

In line with the training provided to members by the Monitoring Officer members will also need to consider bias and pre-determination in certain circumstances and whether they have a conflict of interest or should otherwise leave the room for Code reasons. 

There were none. 

This report summarises the content of agenda item 7, which, in the opinion of the proper officer, contains exempt information within one of the categories in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. It is a matter for the Committee to determine whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of documents. 

It was agreed that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt material contained in agenda item 7 because consideration of these matters would disclose information falling within Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as specified in agenda item 7 and in all circumstances of the case, the Committee considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The committee is requested to consider a complaint about a Councillor that has been received by the Monitoring Officer. 

Discussion:

The Committee considered complaint CCC/01/2013 received by the Monitoring Officer on 17 May 2013.

Decision: 

(a)   Complaint one: prejudicial interest

The Committee considered advice from the Monitoring Officer and decided that this complaint to be out of time since it related to events before 1 July 2012 and that there were no relevant legislative transitional arrangements and so no legal basis to consider the complaint. They therefore decided to take no further action on this element of the complaint.

(b)   Complaint two: Disclosable Pecuniary Interest

With reference to the assessment criteria the Committee were not persuaded that the issue gave rise to a breach of the Code of Conduct.  The subject member’s contract interest ended in February 2012 and the appointment as a trustee by the Council did not constitute “employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain” which meant the subject member did not have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI). Although the Committee believed that the subject member had a conflict of interest because of their appointment as a trustee, the committee noted that the subject member had been appointed by the Council to the position and declared the conflict appropriately at the Planning Committee and had taken no part in the debate or voting. They therefore decided to take no further action.

The Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that because of an apparent confusion amongst members generally about leaving the meeting room, a requirement in the Code of Conduct although not the law, for DPIs, and the choice for members on conflict of interests to leave the meeting room, he undertook to contact the subject member and also to produce a briefing note to be circulated to all Members of the Council giving further advice in this regard.