Agenda item

To consider the motion proposed by Councillor Tim Dant. Seconded by Richard Austen-Baker, Stephie Barber, Tim Hamilton-Cox and Tricia Heath.

“This council believes that it could make better use of the skills of all its councillors and improve the democratic accountability of decision making by ceasing the current leader and cabinet model of governance and implementing a committee system. Council requires the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in conjunction with Cabinet to investigate the best way to introduce a committee system of governance, taking into account the experiences of other councils. The investigation will lead to a detailed, legally and constitutionally sound proposal, including a programme for implementation, to be presented to full Council for consideration on or before its Annual Meeting in May 2020.” 

An officer briefing note is attached.

Councillor Dant had given the required notice to the Chief Executive in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 15 to move the following motion set out in the agenda:-

“This council believes that it could make better use of the skills of all its councillors and improve the democratic accountability of decision making by ceasing the current leader and cabinet model of governance and implementing a committee system. Council requires the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in conjunction with Cabinet to investigate the best way to introduce a committee system of governance, taking into account the experiences of other councils. The investigation will lead to a detailed, legally and constitutionally sound proposal, including a programme for implementation, to be presented to full Council for consideration on or before its Annual Meeting in May 2020.” 

An officer briefing note had been included with the agenda. In light of comments in the briefing note, Councillor Dant had circulated a revised version of his motion via email:-

“This council believes that it could make better use of the skills of all its councillors and improve the democratic accountability of decision making by ceasing the current leader and cabinet model of governance and implementing a committee system. Council will establish a Committee of the Council, with membership in balance, to investigate the best way to introduce a committee system of governance, taking into account the experiences of other councils. The investigation will lead to a detailed, legally and constitutionally sound proposal to be presented to full Council for consideration on or before its meeting in September 2020. That proposal will set out a future programme for implementation of a committee system of governance.” 

With the Mayor’s permission, the Deputy Monitoring Officer explained that there was an error in the briefing note she had drafted. It referred to a Committee of Council being an appropriate mechanism for investigating a committee system of governance, when this should have been a Working Group. A note of explanation had been provided on the revised version of the motion on Members’ desks. This was why the text of the motion on the tables referred to a Working Group rather than a Committee of Council.

The Mayor asked for a vote to be taken to allow Councillor Dant to revise the wording of his motion. In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 17.7 he reminded Members that the vote would be taken without any discussion. Council voted to allow the revised wording below to be debated.

“This council believes that it could make better use of the skills of all its councillors and improve the democratic accountability of decision making by ceasing the current leader and cabinet model of governance and implementing a committee system. Council will establish a Working Group, with membership in balance, to investigate the best way to introduce a committee system of governance, taking into account the experiences of other councils. The investigation will lead to a detailed, legally and constitutionally sound proposal to be presented to full Council for consideration on or before its meeting in September 2020. That proposal will set out a future programme for implementation of a committee system of governance.” 

The revised motion was seconded by Councillor Austen-Baker.

An amendment to the motion, which was not accepted as a friendly amendment by Councillor Dant, was moved by Councillor Sinclair and seconded by Councillor Wood:

“That the word ‘could’ be replaced with the word ‘might’; the words ‘politically proportionate’ be inserted prior to ‘Working Group’;deletion of the words ‘with membership in balance’ after Working Group; deletion of ‘the best way to introduce’ prior to ‘a committee system of governance’; the insertion of ‘and an assessment of the effectiveness of the current Cabinet Model’ after ‘other councils;’ the insertion of ‘will produce a detailed assessment of both models of governance; including a comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the two models and a comprehensive finance and resource analysis’ after ‘the investigation;’the insertion of ‘If the assessment supports a case for change it’ prior to ‘will lead to a detailed, legally  and constitutionally sound proposal’ with the insertion of ‘and a realistic timetable for implementation’ added to the end of the motion.

Debate followed on the amendment before a vote was taken and the amendment was lost.

By way of a friendly amendment, Councillor Stubbins proposed, seconded by Councillor Wood:

“That the word ‘could’ be replaced with the word ‘might’ in the first sentence of the motion.”

With the agreement of the seconder, Councillor Dant accepted this as a friendly amendment.

By way of a further amendment which was accepted as a friendly amendment by the proposer and seconder of the motion, Councillor Wood proposed ‘that the words ‘a committee’ in the final sentence be replaced with ‘any change to the’ prior to ‘system of governance.

Members then debated the substantive motion and at the conclusion of the debate a vote was taken and the motion was carried.

Resolved:-

This council believes that it might make better use of the skills of all its councillors and improve the democratic accountability of decision making by ceasing the current leader and cabinet model of governance and implementing a committee system. Council will establish a Working Group, with membership in balance, to investigate the best way to introduce a committee system of governance, taking into account the experiences of other councils. The investigation will lead to a detailed, legally and constitutionally sound proposal to be presented to full Council for consideration on or before its meeting in September 2020. That proposal will set out a future programme for implementation of any change to the system of governance.