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.

At the time of publication, all notifications to form political groups had not been received by the Proper Officer following the elections on 4 May 2023. As a consequence, the detailed calculations relating to the above will be included in Appendix A to the report and will be circulated to Councillors as soon as practicably possible.

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.

In relation to this Council were requested to refer to the revised appendix which had been circulated to each Member.

Councillors were asked to consider and approve the:

• political balance and the proposed allocation of seats on Committees to each political group
• nominations for Councillors to serve on the Committees within the Council’s decision making structure

The Leader of the Council advised that in order to achieve the required political balance changes had been proposed to:

·       reduce the Planning Committee membership to 14 councillors by removing the seat allocated to Poole Engage;

·       reduce Licensing Committee membership to 14 councillors by removing the seat allocated to unaligned councillors; and

• increasing the membership of the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee to 8 members adding a seat to Poole Engage Group (Councillor Butt) and for Councillor Bartlett as an unaligned Councillor.

RESOLVED that: -

(a)         the revised political balance of the Council, as set out in Appendix A, Table 1 be approved;

(b)         the allocation of seats to each political group as set out in Appendix A, Table 2 be approved;

(c)         the appointment of Councillors to Committees and Boards, taking into account the membership, as detailed in Appendix A, Table 3, and any nominations submitted by political groups, be approved;

(d)         the allocation of seats to each political group to the outside bodies as detailed in Appendix A, Table 4, be approved and the Group Leaders advise the proper officer of their representatives;

(e)         Subject to (d) above the Council is requested to approve the appointment of unaligned members to the relevant outside bodies.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Leader of the Council