Issue - meetings

The Cabinet is requested to consider the report and its appendices and make the following resolutions:

1.     That Cabinet approve membership of Panels as set out in the appendix to this report.

2.     That Cabinet approve appointments to current existing Panels: Boundary Review Panel, Business Routeing Panel, Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel, Economic Development Panel, Environment Panel, Grants and Concessions Panel, Joint Employee Consultative Panel, Strategic Risk Group as set out in the appendix to this report.

3.     That Cabinet confirm Housing and Communities Panel membership, Terms of Reference and appointments as set out in the appendix to this report.

4.     That Cabinet approve a local protocol that Panel meetings are to remain private meetings as a default, but that the respective Chairs of each Panel should move to turn their meetings into public meetings, subject to discussion with the Monitoring Officer.

Please note the appendix to the report is to follow.

RESOLVED

1.     That Cabinet approve membership of Panels as set out in the revised appendix to this report.

2.     That Cabinet approve appointments to current existing Panels: Boundary Review Panel, Business Routeing Panel, Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel, Economic Development Panel, Environment Panel, Grants and Concessions Panel, Joint Employee Consultative Panel and Strategic Risk Group as set out in the revised appendix to this report.

3.     That Cabinet confirm the Housing and Communities Panel membership as set out in the revised appendix to this report.

4.     That Cabinet approve a local protocol that Panel meetings are to remain private meetings as a default, but that the respective Chairs of each Panel should be able to turn their meetings into public meetings, subject to discussion with the Monitoring Officer.

Cllr Lintill introduced the item and handed over to Mr Bennett. Mr Bennett drew attention to section 2.1 of the report and confirmed that although a responsibility of the Cabinet all Group Leaders had been consulted in the appointments. With regard to section 2.4 of the report he explained that Corporate Governance and Audit Committee had an in depth debate about whether Panels should be held in public or private. He added that by nature of the content of some Panel meetings there is a legal requirement to be held in private. In order to be held in public the content of the meeting would need to be carefully considered by the Chair and Mr Bennett as Monitoring Officer.

Cllr Moss was invited to speak. He drew attention to concerns he had received from members of the community who would like to see the Panels more open and transparent. He confirmed that this was also the view of his Group. He requested the default of a Panel meeting to be public with public minutes. Mr Bennett drew attention to section 2.4 and the balance between transparency and privacy of decision making. He added that Panels are there to debate ideas with final decisions being made at public meetings.

Cllr Dignum explained the benefit he saw to Panels being held in private in order to openly debate policy development.

Cllr Plant explained that the Environment Panel would be a Panel that could be held in public. She then suggested a minor amendment to the wording of the third line of recommendation 4 to read ‘should be able to’. This was seconded by Cllr Dignum. Mr Bennett confirmed that the wording was acceptable.

Cllr Taylor with reference to the Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel explained that there are a number of items that are considered by the Panel that are commercially sensitive and therefore would not be appropriate to be debated in public. She requested members consider the length of speeches made at Panel meetings to avoid grandstanding and allow more time for debate on the agenda items.

Cllr Sutton wished to support the comments made by the other Cabinet members including Cllr Plant’s amendment.

In a vote the following resolutions were agreed:

RESOLVED

1.    That Cabinet approve membership of Panels as set out in the revised appendix to this report.

2.    That Cabinet approve appointments to current existing Panels: Boundary Review Panel, Business Routeing Panel, Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel, Economic Development Panel, Environment Panel, Grants and Concessions Panel, Joint Employee Consultative Panel and Strategic Risk Group as set out in the revised appendix to this report.

3.    That Cabinet confirm the Housing and Communities Panel membership as set out in the revised appendix to this report.

4.    That Cabinet approve a local protocol that Panel meetings are to remain private meetings as a default, but that the respective Chairs of each Panel should be able to turn their meetings into public meetings, subject to discussion with the Monitoring Officer.