Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors B Adams, A Bridges, C E H Marfleet and Mr C V Miller (Parent Governor Representative)

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

RESOLVED

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 April 2014 be agreed and         signed by the Chairman.

During consideration of the minutes, Members were reminded of the letter which was requested to be sent to Lincolnshire MP's in respect of the Better Care Fund during the meeting held on 27 March 2014.  Members were advised that significant enquiries had been made on this since the meeting on 24 April 2014, and it was felt that further investigation should be undertaken by the Health Scrutiny Committee.

(To consider any Call-Ins, should any be received)

No call-ins had been received.

(To consider any proposals for Scrutiny Reviews, should any be received)

There were no proposals for scrutiny reviews.

(To receive a report by Nigel West (Democratic Services Manager), which invites the Committee to consider an update on the Review of the Constitution)

Consideration was given to a report which updated the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on progress with the review of the Council’s Constitution.

A cross party working group was established at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on 27 June 2013 to support the Monitoring Officer in the review of the Constitution and had met on several occasions.

The report presented to the Committee focused on amendments to Part 2 – Articles of the Constitution and Part 3 – Responsibility for Functions.  Further meetings had been scheduled for 11 and 22 July 2014 when other sections would be considered.  Subject to the agreement of the Committee, the amended Constitution would be presented to Full Council on 26 September 2014 for approval and adoption.

Members of the Committee were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         It was clarified that ‘members’ referred to in Article 3 of Part 2, were elected members of the Council.  Rights and duties for added members and co-opted members were set out in a later part of the Constitution;

·         It was noted that the biggest change in relation to Article 3, was the inclusion of the link to the Electoral Commission;

·         It was discussed whether the reference on page 2/9 of the Constitution to ‘The Ruling Group’ should be changed?  It was suggested whether ‘majority’ group could be used instead, but it was felt that this did not reflect the difference between the dominant group with the most members, and a group which was an amalgamation of more than one group.  It was agreed that this should be referred to the Monitoring Officer;

·         It was thought important that added and co-opted members should abide by the same rules and code of conduct as elected councillors.  It was confirmed that the code of conduct did apply to both elected and non-elected members of the Council;

It was reported that work would continue to progress on the Constitution, two more meetings were scheduled, and a further update may be included in the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.  It was also suggested that an additional meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee be arranged for 27 August 2014 in order to finalise all the amendments prior to the Constitution being submitted to Full Council.  However, it was noted that this meeting would be cancelled in the event it was not needed.

RESOLVED

That the recommendations of the Constitution Review Group be agreed, with a view to them being incorporated in a final submission to Council on 26 September 2014, subject to the following:

·         Clarification of terminology for ‘Ruling Group’;

·         Clarification in relation to code of conduct for Added and Co-opted Members.

(To receive a report by David Hair (Team Leader Scrutiny and Member Support), which provides the Committee with an opportunity to consider its work programme and the work programmes for the Council's Scrutiny Committees)

Consideration was given to a report from the Team Leader (Scrutiny and Member Support), which provided the Committee with an opportunity to consider its work programme and the work programmes of the Scrutiny Committees.  Copies of the individual work programmes were appended to the report and the following updates were received:-

i) Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee

There would be an addition to the agenda for the meeting on 24 July 2014, which would be an update on the Review of the Constitution.  An additional meeting would also be arranged for 27 August 2014.

ii) Adults Scrutiny Committee

There were currently seven items on the agenda for the meeting on 30 July 2014, but it was likely that not all the items listed would come forward..

It was also reported that it was proposed to change the date of the 24 September 2014 meeting to 1 October 2014.

There were no further changes to the work programme.

iii) Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee

The Scrutiny Officer advised that there were no amendments to the work programme.  However, it was noted that the agenda for the July meeting was quite lengthy with five items for pre-decision scrutiny.

It was reported that the final report for the Frontline Social Workers and Safeguarding Scrutiny Review had been completed and signed off by the Scrutiny Committee and would be submitted to the Executive for consideration on 1 July 2014.

iv) Community and Public Safety Scrutiny Committee

It was reported that there were currently no changes to the work programme. However, the meeting on 10 September 2014, would be held at the Fire and Rescue Training Facility at Waddington.  Following that meeting there would be a Councillor development session on Public Health Harm Reduction and would look at alcohol and tobacco, illegal medicines and legal highs.  Invitations to this session would be sent out to Councillors shortly.  It was noted that this session would also be open to Councillors who were not members of this Committee.

v) Economic Scrutiny Committee

The Scrutiny Officer advised that there were no amendments to the Work Programme and the Task and Finish Group’s report ‘Impact of Transportation on Maximising Economic Growth’ had been accepted at the June meeting.  It would be considered by the Executive at its meeting on 2 September 2014.

vi) Environmental Scrutiny Committee

The Chairman reported that the only change to the work programme was that the Minerals and Waste Local Plan item scheduled for 18 July 2014, had been deferred to the meeting on 19 September 2014.

It was reported that the Textiles Working Group would be bringing its recommendations on a way forward for the management of textile recycling bins in household waste recycling centres to the meeting on 18 July 2014.

Members commented that they were pleased to see that textile recycling was being considered, and were confident that some satisfactory conclusions would be reached when the report was published.

Councillor Mrs M J Overton MBE reported that she had just  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.