Issue - meetings

Report of the Constitution Working Group

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report which set out the proposed arrangements for adoption by the Council in order to comply with the new conduct regime set out in the Localism Act 2011 and the recently approved Regulations. He apologised for the late circulation of the report but the regulations had not been published until 8 June 2012 and therefore officers had been under particular pressure to produce the report in the required timescales.  He highlighted the new obligation to disclose the pecuniary interests of spouses and partners as part of a Member’s Register of Interest declaration. Members were also asked to approve a new Code of Conduct.

Councillor McLain indicated his intention to abstain from any vote as although he had supported the original intention of the Standards regime, he was not happy with how it had turned out. He advised that following a detailed briefing by their Monitoring Officer, the Members at the County Council had achieved cross-party consensus in support of a common approach across all seven local authorities and a common code to include parish councils in Gloucestershire. They would be looking for proposals to come back in the Autumn. Hence he considered that this report was a good piece of work but was premature.

A member asked whether a wife or spouse have the right to refuse to have their interest disclosed and did they have any rights to privacy under the Human Rights Act. The Borough Solicitor acknowledged that this part of the legislation had come as a surprise and that parish councillors had already expressed some concerns. Members could have a defence if they had no knowledge of their spouse’s pecuniary interests but otherwise the obligation was on the Member to make the disclosure and not the spouse.  If they failed to do this they could be liable to criminal proceedings. She emphasised that these were statutory rules and the council could not decide to amend them. She assumed that the rights of spouses would have been taken into account during the construction of the legislation.

It was noted that Step 1 in appendix 3 should refer to CBC and not TBC.

The Leader referred members to recommendation 8 in the report regarding the appointment of Independent Persons. He advised that an Interview Panel consisting of himself, Councillor Garnham and Councillor Godwin, had interviewed three candidates on 20 June 2012. The panel was unanimous in its recommendation to the Council to appoint Mr Duncan Chittenden and Mr Martin Jauch as Independent Persons for Cheltenham Borough Council.

Before the vote, the Mayor highlighted to Members that the regulations came into force on 1 July and therefore the council was obliged to put arrangements in place in accordance with these regulations.  He also reminded Members that the Borough Solicitor had been on hand before the Council meeting to answer any questions members had about the proposals.

Upon the vote the recommendations (excluding 9) were CARRIED with 3 abstentions.

Upon a separate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13