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ITEM EX11 - ANNEX 1

EXECUTIVE – 18 FEBRUARY 2003

ESTABLISHMENT OF CONSERVATION BOARDS FOR THE COTSWOLDS AND CHILTERNS AREAS OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY

Summary of the Proposed Cotswolds Conservation Board Establishment Order

An extract from a report prepared by Land Use Consultants, "Proposals for the Cotswolds AONB Conservation Board Established Order" published in November 2002

Section 2 – "The Establishment Order"

1. Establishment of a board will be achieved through promotion of an order that is specific to the Cotswolds AONB.
2. There is no blueprint for a conservation board order, although work is well advanced on the Chilterns Order and there are precedents for other types of board. The Cotswolds Order is being drafted to reflect the content of this document and the wishes of the Partnership.
3. As a general principle, the parliamentary draftsmen will seek to make the Order as brief as possible and it will contain only those elements that are essential to confirm the board’s legal status. The Order, itself, will contain schedules giving more information, but much of the practicality of running the board will be left to the board itself to decide upon. These issues will be covered in Standing Orders.

Citation and Commencement

4. The Order will have its own citation and will contain two key dates. The first date will indicate when the Order comes into force (the ‘establishment’ day) and the second (the ‘transfer’ day) will determine when the Board takes up its duties and powers. There will be an interval between these two dates when transitional arrangements will exist to appoint members of the Board and smooth the path from the existing Partnership to the new Board.

Interpretation

5. The first section of the Order will provide interpretation of specific terms and set out broad requirements on membership, meetings and proceedings, reports, accounts, staff, transitional arrangements, and related matters.
6. Points of detail will either be covered in Standing Orders adopted by the Board or, if it is a legal requirement, they will be covered in Schedules appended to the Order.

Size and Membership of the Board

7. DEFRA has advised that the Order will need to define the membership of the Board, and confirm the establishment of an Executive Committee.
8. For the Order it will be sufficient to state that:

• 17 members nominated by local authorities,
• 8 members nominated by parish councils, and,
• 15 members nominated by the Secretary of State.

9. The processes for appointing and replacing, where necessary, members from each of these categories are described in […].

Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson

10. The Act refers specifically to the arrangements for a ‘chairman’ and ‘deputy chairman’ to be appointed by the Board from amongst its own members.

Executive Committee

11. The Board will appoint an Executive Committee with the necessary powers to act on behalf of the Board under rules to be established in the Boards’ Standing Orders, or if formally required by law, in Schedules to the Order. A set of draft rules is contained in […].
12. The committee will comprise 11 members and the chairperson of the main Board.
13. The membership of the executive committee (including the chair person) will reflect the structure of the main board. There will be:

• 6 members drawn from local authority nominees,
• 2 members drawn from parish council nominees,
• 4 members drawn from Secretary of State nominees.

14. The chairperson’s status as a nominee will be taken into account in selecting the other members of the Executive Committee (e.g. if the Chairperson of the Board has been elected from amongst the Secretary of State nominees, this will reduce the other vacancies from this category to three).

Meetings Of The Board

15. The Board will meet twice a year, at six monthly intervals. The Board will be responsible for adopting the AONB Management Plan and for adopting an Annual Business Plan. It will set overall policy and priorities and review matters of principle affecting the exercise of its functions and duties.

Meetings of the Executive Committee

16. The Executive Committee will meet six times a year.
17. The Executive Committee will have full delegated powers from the Board to deal with:

• Personnel
• Finance (Including Grant Aid)
• Administration
• Fund Raising
• Liaison
• Planning Advice

18. Details of these functions will be set out in Standing Orders of the Board or, if formally required by law, in Schedules to the Order.

Role of the Cotswolds Annual Forum

19. The existing annual Forum will be retained to maintain the valuable contributions from existing organisations. It will be referred to in the Boards’ Standing Orders or, if formally required by law, in Schedules to the Order.

Staff

20. Transitional arrangements will apply to the employment of existing staff.
21. The Executive Committee of the Board will appoint an Executive Officer (Chief Officer).
22. Other staff will be appointed as required by the Executive Committee, or Executive Officer acting under delegated powers.
23. Staff of the AONB Office will service the Board and Executive Committee, in addition to carrying out its day to day functions. The Executive Officer will be accountable to the Executive Committee and will report to it. In addition, the chairs of working groups (if these are established) may be invited to report to the Executive Committee.

Records and Documents of the Conservation Board

24. The Board will keep accurate records of its proceedings, […].

Complaints of Maladministration

25. Any complaints of maladministration will be made in writing to the Chairperson of the Board. In the event of the Chairperson being involved in the case, the Deputy Chairperson or other member appointed by the Board will take responsibility for the investigation.
26. Any charges of maladministration will be investigated using the procedure agreed by the Board in its code of conduct.
27. Where a case of maladministration is proved, the Board will have the power to dismiss a member, who will then be disqualified from being a member for a minimum of 5 years.
28. The nominating authority then has the right to provide another Board member for the remainder of the term of office (as long as that is more than four months).

Financial Matters

29. The Board will keep a general fund, into which all income is placed and all expenditure is met.
30. Detailed accounts of income and expenditure will be kept in accordance with the Audit Commission Act 1998.

Transitional Arrangements

31. Two options are being considered for handling the transitional period between the coming into force of the Order and the first meeting of the Board. This period could be between one or two weeks and two months in duration. The first option is for the affairs of the Board to be dealt with by the existing governance structure (i.e. the Partnership and its officers). The second option is for an Acting Chief Officer to be appointed. Legal advice is awaited on the preferred option.

1. The Cotswolds AONB Partnership will continue to manage the affairs of the Cotswolds AONB until the new Board has been appointed.
2. A final meeting of the Cotswolds Partnership will be held to wind up the Partnership on the day preceding the establishment of the Board.
3. During the transitional period, the Chairperson of the Partnership and the AONB Officer will have, respectively, the authority of the Chairperson of the Board, and of the Boards’ Executive Officer.

1. An Acting Chief Officer of the Board will be appointed by the Secretary of State to carry out the functions of the Board until the Board has held its first meeting and the Board has assumed its full powers.

32. The process of electing, or nominating, members of the Board will be commenced as soon as the Secretary of State is satisfied that a majority of local authorities are in favour of a Board. (This will be several months in advance of the coming into force of the order).
33. The timescale for appointment of Parish Council Nominees and Secretary of State nominees is likely to be six months, whereas the timescale for nomination of local authority members will be around two months.
34. The formal steps of electing members in accordance with the Order will not commence until the Order comes into force but will be concluded by the date of the Board’s first meeting.

Prior Identification of Potential Executive Committee Members

35. The Executive Officer will contact all members designate prior to the first meeting of the Board and invite applications for the specific categories of membership of the Executive Committee (i.e. 6 Local Authority; 2 Parish and 4 Secretary of State).
36. The names and details of members designate who have offered themselves as Executive Committee Members will be circulated by the Executive Officer to those other members designate who are drawn from the same category of membership.
37. The Executive Officer will convene three separate meetings (one for each category of membership), to discuss candidates and preferences for the appointment of executive committee members. The Chairperson, or Executive Officer will chair these meetings but will play no part in selection or voting. The preferences for elections to the Executive Committee will not be confirmed until the first meeting of the board when the formal election will take place.

Staff

38. Existing members of staff under contract to Cotswold District Council (as employer acting on behalf of the Cotswolds Partnership) will have their contracts transferred to the Board.

Duties, Functions And Powers Of The Board

Duties

39. Duties of the Board are set out in section 87 of the Act. They are to:

• have regard to the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the AONB,
• have regard to the purpose of increasing the understanding and enjoyment by the public of the special qualities of the AONB – where this is compatible with its conservation and enhancement,
• have regard to the needs of agriculture and forestry and to the economic and social interests of rural areas (duty extended from s37 Countryside Act 1968),
• have regard to the avoidance of pollution of authorised supplies of water belonging to or used by statutory water undertakers (duty extended from s38 Countryside Act 1968),
• foster the economic and social well-being of local communities within the AONB (but without incurring significant expenditure in so doing), and,
• prepare and publish a plan setting out policies for management, and for carrying out the Board’s functions.

40. For the avoidance of doubt, the Order will confirm that the functions to be exercised by the Board in fulfilling its duties under section 87 will include, but will not be restricted to, those activities set out below and listed in more detail in […].

• Providing or supporting countryside management services.
• Promoting access.
• Managing, providing or supporting environmental education, interpretation and information services.
• Participating in planning and land use issues.
• Managing and promoting special projects.
• Providing grants and other financial support.
• Introducing local byelaws to govern/manage the land.

41. In addition to the powers already conferred on a board by the Act, supplementary powers may be added to enable the Board to deliver its functions with the Cotswolds AONB. Under section 86 (3a and b) of the Act, these powers may either be:

1. transferred from local authorities, or,
2. exercised concurrently by the local authority and by the conservation board.