Agenda item

Dispensation Requests

This report requests a number of dispensations for Council Members, allowing them to speak at Ward Committee meetings when they may have a prejudicial interest.

Note: The following annexes to the above report were published with this agenda on 21 January 2010:

Annex A – list of councillors seeking dispensations

Annex B – amended recommendation

Minutes:

Members considered a report which presented a number of requests for dispensation for City of York Council Members, to allow them to speak at ward committee meetings when they may have a prejudicial interest.

Each ward in the City of York Council area had a ward committee whose membership comprised the relevant ward councillors. Each ward committee had a budget which could be used to fund organisations in the ward. When a ward councillor was also a member of an organisation receiving such funding, they were likely to have a prejudicial interest which, under the Code of Conduct, would exclude them from decision-making in respect of the budget. This would usually mean that the ward committee was unable to make a decision unless a dispensation was granted by the Standards Committee.

Requests for dispensation must be submitted in writing. It was for the Standards Committee to decide what criteria to apply when considering a request and to decide the nature of the dispensation and how long it should apply (up to a maximum of four years). Applications for dispensation had been received from a total of 22 councillors, as listed in Annex A to the report. All were recommended for approval. Details of each application were made available to members at the meeting. However, it was noted that not all of these included details of the organisations to which the Members in question belonged.

RESOLVED: (i) That dispensations be granted to the following councillors in relation to their ward committees, in order to allow them to participate in budget and funding decisions at the ward committee meetings:

Councillor Keith Aspden	Heslington and Fulford Ward Committee
Councillor Denise Bowgett	Holgate Ward Committee
Councillor Barbara Boyce	Heworth Ward Committee
Councillor Jenny Brooks	Derwent, Heworth Without & Osbaldwick Ward Committee
Councillor Sonja Crisp	Holgate Ward Committee
Councillor Andy D'Agorne	Fishergate Ward Committee
Councillor Helen Douglas	Clifton Ward Committee
Councillor Paul Firth	Haxby & Wigginton Ward Committee
Councillor Christina Funnell	Heworth Ward Committee
Councillor Susan Galloway	Westfield Ward Committee
Councillor John Galvin	Bishopthorpe and Wheldrake Ward Committee
Councillor Paul Healey	Rural West York Ward Committee
Councillor Keith Hyman	Huntington and New Earswick Ward Committee
Councillor Richard Moore	Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without Ward Committee
Councillor Keith Orrell	Huntington and New Earswick Ward Committee
Councillor Ruth Potter	Heworth Ward Committee
Councillor Carol Runciman	Huntington and New Earswick Ward Committee
Councillor Dave Taylor	Fishergate Ward Committee
Councillor Andrew Waller	Westfield Ward Committee
Councillor Joe Watt	Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without Ward Committee
Councillor Irene Waudby	Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without Ward Committee
Councillor Sian Wiseman	Strensall Ward Committee

(ii) That the dispensations be granted for a period up to the end of the 2009/10 Municipal Year, on 27 May 2010.

REASON: To enable ward committees to make decisions in respect of their budgets.

(iii) That details of the individual applications for dispensation be made available with the minutes of this meeting.*

REASON: So that the reasons for the dispensations are clear and transparent.

* Note: details of the applications are attached as an annex to these minutes

Supporting documents: