Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room, Parkside, Chartway, Horsham

Contact: Email: CommitteeServices@horsham.gov.uk  Direct Line: 01403 215465

Items
No. Item

SC/1

Election of Chairman

To elect a Chairman of the Committee for the next Municipal year.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman of the Council, Councillor Rowbottom took the Chair for the election of a new Chairman for the Standards Committee.  Councillor Donnelley was nominated by Councillor P Burgess and seconded by Councillor van der Klugt.  There being no other nominations, Councillor Donnelley was duly elected as Chairman of the Standards Committee for the municipal year 2019-20.

SC/2

Appointment of Vice-Chairman

To elect a Vice Chairman of the Committee for the next Municipal year.

Minutes:

Councillor van der Klugt was nominated as Vice Chairman by Councillor Rowbottom and seconded by Councillor P Burgess.  There being no other nominations, Councillor van der Klugt was duly elected as Vice-Chairman.

SC/3

To approve the time of meetings of the Committee for the ensuing year

To agree the time of the meetings of the Committee for the municipal year.

Minutes:

The dates and times of Standards Committee meetings for the municipal year 2019/20 were unanimously approved.

 

RESOLVED

 

That Standards Committee meetings should proceed as scheduled for the duration of the Council year.

SC/4

Declarations of Members' Interests

To receive any declarations of interest from Members of the Committee

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

SC/5

Minutes pdf icon PDF 72 KB

To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting held on 13 March 2019.

(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.)

Minutes:

The minutes of the Standards Committee held on 13 March 2019 were agreed as an accurate record and were signed by the Chairman.

SC/6

Announcements

To receive any announcements from the Chairman of the Committee, the Chief Executive or the Monitoring Officer.

Minutes:

The Committee recorded its thanks for the work of the former Chairman of the Standards Committee, former Councillor Coldwell. 

 

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were considered:

 

·         That the new Standards Committee guidance from the Government strengthened the role of the Independent Person and of the Standards Committee.

 

·         That the Parish Representative would be appointed at the next meeting of the Horsham Association of Local Councils on 25th June 2019.  An advertisement would be issued for an additional Independent Person.

 

·         Sub committees would require three Councillors from the Standards Committee to hear complaints. 

 

·         That the guidance from central Government recommended that parish councils should adopt the code of conduct used by District Councils and that a model code of conduct should be provided to the parishes.  It was noted that the Sussex Association of Local Councils did have a model code of conduct. 

 

·         That Horsham District Council’s code of conduct should be updated.

 

 

RESOLVED

 

That:

 

a)    the Committee thank former Councillor Coldwell for his work as Chairman of the Standards Committee during the last municipal year;  

 

b)    Horsham District Council’s code of conduct be updated;

 

c)    the Standards Committee training be rescheduled.

SC/7

Urgent Business

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.

Minutes:

There was no urgent business.