Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED

That Councillor David Coldwell be elected Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing Council year.

RESOLVED

That Councillor Mike Morgan be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing Council year.

RESOLVED

That meetings of the Committee be held at 10.00am for the ensuing Council year.

To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting held on 29 March 2018

(Note: If any Member wishes to propose an amendment to the minutes they should submit this in writing to committeeservices@horsham.gov.uk at least 24 hours before the meeting.  Where applicable, the audio recording of the meeting will be checked to ensure the accuracy of the proposed amendment.)

The meeting of the meeting of the Committee held on 29 March 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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, the Chief Executive or the Monitoring Officer

There were no announcements.

The Monitoring Officer presented a report on developments in the ethical framework that affected the role and activities of Councillors and the Council’s business.

The Council had subscribed to the Hoey Ainscough Associates’ interactive website, the Standards Exchange, allowing access to news on standards issues, cases and best practice from other authorities which would be provided to Members of the Standards Committee.

The Monitoring Officer would undertake District and Parish Councillor training for Ethical Governance and Code of Conduct starting in September 2018 whilst continuing to provide training for parish clerks. This would include refresher training when appropriate.

Members discussed ways that could be used to encourage more District and Parish Members to attend training including the use of ‘Training Passports’, providing Parish Clerks with the necessary training to train the Parish Councillors themselves and furthering the use of online training resources.

The local assessment schedule, which contained details of complaints that had been received since June 2017, was noted. The Monitoring Officer informed Members that they had reformatted the complaint procedure for when Councillors are perceived to breach the Code of Conduct in order to prevent receiving potentially vexatious or untrue complaints and to keep the way complaints are dealt with consistent going forward.

RESOLVED

That the contents of the report be noted.

REASONS

(i)      To ensure that the Committee, the Members of the Council and others to whom the report is circulated are kept up to date with developments in the ethical framework. 

(ii)     To promote and maintain high standards of conduct amongst Members.

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 was no urgent business.