Issue - meetings

The Council is asked to consider and approve the review of the political balance of the Council, the allocation of seats on Committees to each political group, the appointment of Councillors on Committees and appointments to outside bodies as part of the annual review and following the outcome of the by-elections on 6 May 2021. The detailed calculations relating to the above will be included in Appendix A to the report and will be circulated to Councillors following the by-elections on 6 May 2021.

Note – As highlighted above Appendix A to the report will be circulated following the by-elections as a supplementary paper.

The Leader of the Council presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Council was asked to consider and approve the review of the political balance of the Council, the allocation of seats on Committees to each political group, the appointment of Councillors on Committees and appointments to outside bodies as part of the annual review and following the outcome of the by-elections on 6 May 2021. The detailed calculations relating to the above were included in Appendix A to the report which had been circulated to each Councillor.

The Leader of the Council moved the recommendations in the report and Appendix A circulated to all Members of the Council subject to Councillor Steve Baron being replaced with Councillor Daniel Butt on the Standards Committee and Councillor Stephen Bartlett being removed as a member of the Lower Central Gardens Trust Board. Councillor Broadhead seconded the proposal and reserved the right to speak later in the debate.

Councillor Hilliard expressed his disappointment that the Leader’s proposal had not been presented at the Group Leaders meeting on Monday and that it had only been circulated earlier that afternoon which had given limited opportunity to discuss and agree a way forward.  He indicated that the proposal meant that Christchurch Independents had reduced representation on the Planning Committee and the administration continued to have control of two main Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  He suggested that the Poole Independents swap their new seat on the Planning Committee with Christchurch Independents new seat on the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Councillor Hadley agreed with the comments made by Councillor Hilliard and expressed his concerns regarding the late circulation and detail of the documents.  He reported that he was not supportive of the proposals relating to Outside Bodies which did not take account of the allocation to the Poole independents. 

A Member raised a point of order in respect of dealing with amendments.  The Chief Executive reported that a formal amendment had not yet been made. Members questioned the accuracy of the information contained in Appendix A to the report and the approach taken by the Leader of the Council in respect of the proposals he had presented. The Head of Democratic Services reported that Table 3 reflected the current memberships on each of the Committees. Members were advised that Table 2 reflected the changes in the political balance and the allocation of seats to political groups it would then be for the political group leaders to notify Democratic Services of their representatives on Committees and Boards.  Councillors were informed that the only exception which the Leader of the Council had addressed in his proposal was the change to the unaligned members in relation to the Standards Committee. 

The Leader of the Council confirmed that he was willing to accommodate the suggestion made by Councillor Hilliard in his proposal and that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93