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City of York Council |
Minutes |
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Meeting |
Joint Standards Committee |
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Date |
31 January 2024 |
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Present |
Councillors Rowley (Chair), Fisher, Pavlovic, Runciman and Whitcroft (Substitute for Cllr Lomas) (CYC Members)
Parish Councillors Rawlings and Chambers
Mr J Leigh (Independent Person) |
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Apologies |
Councillor Lomas and Parish Councillor Waudby
Ms R Mazza (Independent Person) |
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Officers Present |
Lindsay Tomlinson, Head of Democratic Governance and Deputy Monitoring Officer |
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27. Declarations of Interest (4.02 pm)
Members were asked to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial interests or disclosable pecuniary interests which they might have in respect of business on the agenda.
In relation to item 9 (Monitoring Report in respect of Complaints Received) Cllr Fisher noted, for transparency reasons, that he was the subject of one of the closed code of conduct complaints.
During item 7 (Parish Council Engagement), Cllr Pavlovic noted that he was the Chair of the Parish Council Liaison meetings.
28. Exclusion of Press and Public (4.04 pm)
Resolved: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt versions of Annexes A and B to Agenda Item 9 (Monitoring Report in Respect of Complaints Received), on the grounds that they contain information likely to reveal the identity of individuals, which is classed as exempt under Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.
29. Minutes (4.04 pm)
Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Standards Committee held on 21 November 2023 be approved as a correct record.
30. Minutes of Sub-Committees (4.05 pm)
Resolved: That the minutes of the following sub-committee meetings be approved as a correct record:
· Joint Standards Assessments Sub-Committee, 30 November 2023.
· Joint Standards Hearings Sub-Committee, 18 December 2023.
31. Public Participation (4.06 pm)
It was reported that there had been two registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.
Gwen Swinburn, a resident, spoke on the Member training programme and Item 7, Parish Council Engagement. She suggested a citywide community governance review and enquired if non-statutory services provided by CYC to parish councils could be recharged to the parish councils.
Cllr M Warters was unable to attend the meeting and had submitted a written representation, after the deadline. The Chair informed Members that he had taken the decision not to accept the submission for the purpose of public participation, however, as it referred to a matter for consideration during the private session of the meeting, the Chair distributed it to Committee Members to enable them to review it as that point.
[4.21 – 4.31pm, the meeting was adjourned]
32. Parish Council Engagement (4.31 pm)
The Head of Democratic Governance presented the report on Parish Council Engagement. She noted that there was ongoing work to do in relation to the code of conduct and confirmed that there were good working relationships with Parish Clerks.
Members commented on a number of aspects of the report and parish council governance including parished and non-parished ward engagement, ward teams and the democratic deficit of ward committees.
Resolved:
i. That the report be noted.
ii. An item be added to the work plan to further examine best practice in parish councils and how to improve / formalise ward committees.
Reason: To ensure a consistent application of standards across wards and parishes.
33. Review of Work Plan (4.42 pm)
Members considered the committee’s work plan for the current municipal year.
Resolved: That the work plan be approved subject to the following additions:
1. Member Training Update. (06 March 2024)
2. Review of Citywide Democratic Engagement of Parished and Non-Parished areas. (08 April 2024)
Reason: To ensure that the committee has a planned programme of work in place.
34. Monitoring Report on Complaints Received (4.51 pm)
Members considered a report which provided an update on current business as regards complaints.
Resolved: That the report be noted.
Reason: To ensure that the committee is aware of current levels of activity.
Cllr M Rowley BEM, Chair
The meeting started at 4.02 pm and finished at 5.25 pm.