Meeting documents

Standards Committee
Wednesday 30th March 2016

Chairman: Councillor Poole
Venue: Function Room 1, Civic Centre, Scunthorpe
Time: 2 pm

AGENDA

1. Substitutions (if any)

2. Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Personal or Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

3. To take the minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2015 as a correct record and authorise the chairman to sign.

4. Assessment Panel Proceedings – To receive and where necessary confirm the minutes of the meetings of the panel held on 6 November 2015 and 18 December 2016.

5. Hearings Panel Proceedings – To receive and where necessary confirm the minutes of the meeting of the panel held on 5 February 2016.

6. Complaints Schedule - Update.

7. Training and Development - Discussion with Mr A Barker Executive Officer, East Riding and North Lincolnshire Local Council's Association (ERNLLCA) and Mr D Knowles, Chairman of ERNLLCA.

8. Any other items which the Chairman decides are urgent by reason of special circumstances which must be specified.

Note: Reports are by the Director of Policy and Resources unless otherwise stated.

MINUTES

PRESENT: Councillor Poole (in the Chair).

Councillors England (Vice-Chairman), Ali, Collinson, T Foster, O'Sullivan and Wells.

W Harvie – Co-opted (Non-voting) Member

Mr R Johnson – Independent Person.

Mr Alan Barker and Mr David Knowles the Executive Officer and Chairman of the East Riding and Northern Lincolnshire Councils Association (ERNLLCA) also attended the meeting.

The committee met at the Civic Centre, Scunthorpe

139 DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY, PERSONAL OR PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS - Declarations of personal interests were made as follows –

MemberSubject
Councillor M AliHackney Carriage Driver/Licence Holder
Councillor J CollinsonMember of a Parish/Town Council which is a member of ERNLLCA
Councillor J EnglandMember of a Parish/Town Council which is a member of ERNLLCA
Councillor T FosterMember of a Parish/Town Council which is a member of ERNLLCA
Councillor C O’SullivanMember of a Parish/Town Council which is a member of ERNLLCA
Councillor N PooleMember of a Parish/Town Council which is a member of ERNLLCA
Councillor D WellsMember of a Parish/Town Council which is a member of ERNLLCA

140 MINUTES – Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of this committee held on 25 November 2015, having been printed and circulated amongst the members, be taken as read and correctly recorded and be signed by the chairman.

141 ASSESSMENT PANEL PROCEEDINGS – Resolved – That the minutes of the meetings of the Assessment Panel held on 6 November and 18 December 2015 be received.

142 HEARING PANEL PROCEEDINGS – Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of the Hearing Panel held on 5 February 2016 be received.

143 (13) COMPLAINTS SCHEDULE – UPDATE – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report updating the committee on progress made with complaints received.

The Director informed members that there was only one complaint currently outstanding and this was being dealt with in accordance with the council’s procedures and processes.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

144 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT – DISCUSSION WITH MR A BARKER EXECUTIVE OFFICER ERNLLCA AND MR D KNOWLES – CHAIRMAN OF ERNLLCA – Further to minute 129, Mr Alan Barker and Mr D Knowles from ERNLLCA attended the meeting and outlined some of the various training courses and events that ERNLLCA arranged for members of town and parish councils across Northern Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. These included training for both parish and town council members and for clerks to town and parish councils. Mr Barker also indicated that whilst the organisation did not itself arrange training on code of conduct matters it did work closely with the council’s monitoring officer, Mr W Bell in ensuring that members of town and parish councils and clerks were trained in relation to the Code of Conduct etc. In discussions with the council’s monitoring officer it had been agreed that these training sessions would continue into the future and they were invaluable in assisting members of town/parish councils to carry out their duties in the full knowledge that they were working within the requirements of legislation.

Mr Barker also indicated that in the past year 836 places had been booked on training events organised by ERNLLCA and, because of the nature of these events which sometimes took place over more than one day, in total some 350 people had attended the courses and events. Around 106 were from North Lincolnshire.

The committee discussed with Mr Barker and Mr Knowles the arrangements for training and development for members of town/parish councils and clerks to these councils and it was agreed that the close working relationship between the two organisations should continue.

Reference was also made to approaches being made to ERNLLCA by a number of parish councils in the East Riding of Yorkshire about potentially adopting North Lincolnshire's Code of Conduct, which they considered was very clear and user friendly.

Resolved - (a) That Mr Barker and Mr Knowles be thanked for attending the meeting and for the information they had given the committee, and (b) that the reference above to the use of North Lincolnshire Council's Code of Conduct by other councils be noted.