Agenda and minutes

Councillor Sue Catterall was elected as Chairman of the Standards Committee for the municipal year 2022-23.

Councillor Phil Orme was elected as Vice Chairman of the Standards Committee for the municipal year 2022- 23.

Members will declare any pecuniary or significant other interests they have in relation to the items on this agenda.

None.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 11 November 2022.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Standards Committee held on 11 November 2021 were confirmed as a correct record.

Report of the Legal Services Manager and Monitoring Officer.

The Monitoring Officer (MO) submitted a report asking the committee to:

·         note the retirement of Barry Parsonage, independent person, on 30 June 2022 and thank him for his service to the council,

·         note the appointment of a new independent person, Mike Nuttall, by Full Council on 12 May 2022, following the advertisement of the independent person’s post,

·         note the officers’ recommendation to appoint David Gregson as a third independent person, which would be considered by Full Council on 7 July 2022.

Decision

The members of the committee

·         noted the impending retirement of Barry Parsonage on 30 June 2022, thanked him for the invaluable service he had provided to the council in the role and wished him well in his retirement,

·         noted the appointment of Mike Nuttall as an independent person, as approved by Full Council on 12 May 2022,

·         noted that an application for the independent person’s post had also been received from David Gregson and that following interview, the MO would make a recommendation to Full Council to appoint him as the third independent person.

Report of the Legal Services Manager and Monitoring Officer.

The MO submitted a report advising the Committee of the number and current status of complaints under the Members’ Code of Conduct received since the last meeting, which had been, or were to be, considered by the MO and the Independent Person(s). A schedule summarising the complaints of alleged breaches of the Council’s Code of Conduct was included as an appendix to the report.

Decision

The committee

·         noted the outcome of concluded complaints and the progress of those still outstanding,

·         approved the new format and the content of the complaints summary,

·         requested that the link to the recording of the Code of Conduct Training be circulated to councillors again,

·         asked for a “practice hearing” to be held as a training session for the committee.

The next scheduled meetings of the Standards Committee are to be held at 6pm on Thursday 10 November 2022 and Thursday 16 March 2022.

The next meetings of the Standards Committee were scheduled at 6pm on Thursday 10 November 2022 and Thursday 16 March 2022 and would take place only if there was sufficient business to transact.