Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were asked to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests that they might have had in the business on the agenda.

None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on Monday 18 August 2014.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting on Monday 18 August 2014 be signed and approved by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so.  The deadline for registering is Friday 29 August 2014 at 5.00 pm.

It was reported that there had been two registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Mr Derek Paterson spoke regarding Agenda Item 4 (City of York Council Governance Review). He felt that the proposed timetable did not give sufficient time for Parish Councils to take part in initial consultation on proposed changes to governance arrangements. He suggested that during the dates suggested at Stage 1 (8 September-10 October) a large number of Parish Councils would not meet. He said that Parish Councils that were meeting during this period would only have 6 days to consult residents and formulate their submissions. He felt that this timing conflicted with Government legislation to encourage public participation. He suggested that three months be given to Parish Councils, interest groups and inner city areas to submit proposals.

Gwen Swinburn spoke regarding the same agenda item. She commented that the Annual Governance Statement as agreed by the Audit and Governance Committee had not referred to the report under consideration. She added that there had been no consultation with Ward Committees and Residents Groups over the review and she felt that there was insufficient time to come up with proposals to submit for consideration in the review.

This report seeks agreement to the proposed processes for undertaking a city wide Community Governance Review of the parishing arrangements for the City of York, including the Terms of Reference and the timetable for the review.

Members considered a report which sought agreement to proposed processes for undertaking a city wide Community Governance Review of the parishing arrangements for the City of York, including the Terms of Reference and the timetable for the review.

In reference to a comment raised under Public Participation, it was confirmed that decision making powers rested with Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee and that the matter fell outside the Terms of Reference for the Audit and Governance Committee.

Members were advised that Officers had brought the report for consideration as they had received requests for changes to governance arrangements from some Parish Councils, it was 12 years since the last such review and Government guidance suggested that this was an appropriate length of time between reviews and the recent completion of the City Council Ward boundary review meant that the timing was appropriate.

It was confirmed that at the current stage all that was sought were public views on issues which should be subject to a review. Any such reviews would involve detailed public consultation.

Members discussed the timing of the review and recognised that there was a need to move swiftly if some known issues were to be capable of being addressed before the next Parish elections.

However, Members also recognised that that there was no need to impose a particular deadline for completing the review and for that reason agreed that extending the time for initial submissions would be appropriate.

Resolved: (i) That the report be noted.

                 (ii) That the commencement of the review be supported.

                 (iii) That the Assistant Director of Governance and ICT in consultation with the Vice Chair be authorised to amend the Terms of Reference to reflect the discussion of the Committee subject to the revised proposals being shared with members of the Committee prior to being implemented.

          (iv)    To note that Members will receive a report in respect of all proposals submitted by the 31 December 2014 and will determine next steps.

Resolved:  To allow consultation on parish arrangements for York in regard to improving the community engagement at local level.

Note:

The Terms of Reference were subsequently amended:

·        To allow the review to commence forthwith.

·        To set a deadline of 31 December 2014 for all proposals to be submitted for consideration for review thus allowing four months for such proposals to be put forward-whether they be proposed changes to Parish Councils, advocating de-parishing, introducing parishing or any other proposal.

·        To move the dates set out in Stage 2 of the draft timetable back by one week in each case and to change the wording of Stage 2 of the timetable as follows:

“interim recommendations prepared in respect of proposals submitted to date allowing any proposals which are capable of being implemented this year to progress”