Agenda item - Public Involvement

35.1 To consider the following items raised by members of the public: (a) Petitions: To receive any petitions presented by members of the public to the full Council or to the meeting itself; (b) Written Questions: To receive any questions submitted by the due date of 10am on the 22^nd January; (c) Deputations: To receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 10am on the 16^th January.

36.1 Adrian Hart asked a public question. The Chair gave the following answer:

Thank you for your question. It is important to note that it is not within the purview of this committee to review decisions made by Chairs concerning the conduct of their respective committees. But it is Full Council who would deal with such a question as they are the ones who make these decisions, it is not the individual chairs of committees like the scrutiny committees. Where you have concerns about conduct by councillors which you consider amounts to a potential breach of the Code of Conduct for Members, the appropriate way to raise such a concern is through the standards process. But I think you are talking much more about the constitution and the discretion within that for various Chairs to make decisions. So, what I would advise you to do is take this question to a committee that can deal with it, because these committees can’t but full council is the final say.

Adrian Hart asked for clarification that people like himself and those mentioned in his question should go to full council when the decisions were deemed final.

Cllr O’Quinn responded:

That was not what I was saying. What I am saying is that you need to ask a question about how much discretion there is for Chairs when a question comes up. That is the question you need to ask, and it is constitutional and it’s a shame that we don’t have the constitutional working group anymore because I think that is where that kind of matter could truly be discussed. I do appreciate your concerns, and I thank you for bringing that to us, unfortunately on this committee you do not get a supplementary question but if you want a very brief final comment I’m happy to hear it.

Adrian Hart said that some of that would be tested tomorrow in the chamber and that he was sceptical. He said that if a deputation or question was curtailed or corporate complaints is declined on the basis that the matter has been explained in email it was not clear what internal forum could examine if that was fair. He said that he heard Cllr O’Quinn’s suggestion that full council will allow that.

Cllr O’Quinn said:

It is a constitutional matter and as I say there is a case for having our constitutional working group, that’s my thought not what everybody else thinks.