Issue - items at meetings - WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILLORS

(a)     Council Meetings and Powers of the Mayor

(i)         Letter from Councillor Kitcat (copy attached).

(ii)       Report of the Director of Strategy & Governance (copy to follow).

98.1         A letter was received from Councillor Kitcat seeking clarification around the operation of council meetings and powers of the Mayor. The Committee also considered an accompanying report of the Director of Strategy & Governance.

98.2         Councillor Kitcat thanked the Chairman for the information provided in the report and stated it was vital that Members and officers understood the procedural rules at council meetings and that the relevant guidance was always to hand and up to date.

98.3         The Chairman advised that the council’s standing orders could not be expected to deal with every possible situation; the powers of any Mayor were wide-ranging and providing that there was an intention to do the right thing and to fairly judge the sense of the meeting, the Mayor's rulings would be final and binding. The Chairman added that the Mayor had behaved appropriately at the last Council meeting and exercised her powers correctly.

98.4         Councillor Kitcat stated that Members had to place their trust in the Mayor in relation to issues that were not addressed in the Constitution, but that the Green Group had felt that a number of the decisions made at the Council meeting were prescribed for in the Constitution.

98.5         The Chairman advised that the Mayor could have used her powers to withdraw the item in question herself, but chose to let the Full Council decide by putting the motion to the vote.

98.6         The Head of Law confirmed that copies of the constitutions available at the town halls would be updated shortly. He explained that the council’s standing orders cannot be exhaustive and are therefore supplemented by a mixture of national legislation, common law and custom and practice; as with other committees, the Chairman must be relied on to use their discretion appropriately.

98.7         Councillor Marsh stated that the Full Council was responsible for choosing the Mayor and that they had always been very experienced councillors. She advised that Members needed to understand that it was a challenging task and that the Mayor must be permitted to use their discretion to manage difficult situations. She added that she was content that the Mayor judged the situation correctly at the recent Council meeting.

98.8         Councillor Mears explained that the Conservative Group was careful to ensure that new councillors understood council procedure rules and to always be respectful towards the Mayor.

98.9         Councillor Watkins stated that Members should not challenge the Mayor at Full Council meetings. He advised Members to utilise other methods for challenging decisions, but to never forced the Mayor to defend his or her position in the Council Chamber.

98.10    Councillor Taylor agreed that the role of Mayor was a challenging one, but that he felt that the certain Members of the Full Council had failed to support the Mayor during the meeting in question by instructing her to take the Sustainable Community Strategy in two parts, when it was intended to be considered as one whole document, without discussing it with opposition groups.

98.11    The Chairman explained that the Conservative Group allowed for the will of the Full Council to be carried without preventing Groups from registering concerns in relation to specific parts of the strategy.

98.12    Councillor Simson advised that the Sustainable Community Strategy had been compiled in sections by each family of partnerships and that is was therefore acceptable to for Groups to decide which sections they supported.

98.13    Councillor Taylor stated that it was disappointing that the Cabinet Member for Environment could not support the Sustainable Transport section of the strategy.

98.14    RESOLVED –

(1)         That the letter be noted.

(2)         That the report be noted.