Agenda and minutes

            RESOLVED

            That Councillor Michael Willett be elected Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing Council year.

            RESOLVED

            That Councillor David Coldwell be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing Council year.

To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting held on 1^st March 2017

            RESOLVED

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 1^st March 2017 be approved as a correct record.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members of the Committee

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman of the Committee or the Chief Executive

The Monitoring Officer advised the Committee that the final recommendations of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) on the electoral review of Horsham had now been published.  In respect of Council size the LGBCE had retained their draft recommendation that the Council should be increased from 44 to 48 Councillors.  The only changes made from the draft recommendations as regards ward boundaries were to modify the boundary between Broadbridge Heath and Denne wards, in line with this Council’s submission, and to change the name of the ward originally proposed as Shipley & Southwater South to Southwater South & Shipley, also part of this Council’s submission.  However, the LGBCE had retained its proposed boundary between the two Southwater wards, rejecting this Council’s proposal.  The final recommendations would now be implemented by order subject to Parliamentary scrutiny to come into force at the local elections in 2019.

Mr Paul Kornycky addressed the Committee referring to the proposal that the review would seek the views of Members but that no public consultation was proposed.  His statement also referred to the provisions within the Council’s Constitution regarding questions by members of the public at meetings of the Council, which was not part of the current review.

The Committee was reminded that, in April 2016, the Council had agreed revised governance arrangements including the appointment of a Policy Development Advisory Group (PDAG) for each Cabinet portfolio holder with a defined membership and timetable of meetings.  The agreed changes were intended to achieve:

·        Member involvement

·        efficiency, with clearer key-decision making responsibilities

·        accountability, with a strong scrutiny function and a clear line of Cabinet Member accountability

·        timely decision making

·        openness, with published PDAG agendas and minutes whilst allowing the PDAGs to benefit from ‘thinking space’ meetings.

It was noted that, in future, all Council, Cabinet, Committee and Sub-Committee meetings held in public would be recorded using the Audiominutes facility.

Council had agreed that these revised governance arrangements would be reviewed after one year of operation.  It was therefore proposed that all Members be invited to complete an electronic questionnaire, as submitted, over a four week period from 19^th June to 14^th July 2017 and that the Committee should then review the findings.

            RESOLVED

(i)         That the review method described in the report be approved and the questionnaire circulated to all Members on 19^th June 2017.

(ii)        That a further meeting of the Committee be held on a date to be agreed to receive a report on the results of the questionnaire.

To note the Governance Committee’s Work Programme

The work programme was noted.

Items not on the agenda which the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion should be considered as urgent because of the special circumstances

There were no matters of special urgency to be considered.