Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Leader

Forward Plan Ref: 2011/085

Contact: Glenn Watson, Principal Governance Officer Tel: (01865) 815270

Report by County Solicitor & Monitoring Officer (CA14).

This report proposes a change to the Scheme of Delegation for Individual Cabinet Member Decisions to allow greater flexibility for the Leader to nominate any other member of the Cabinet to take the place of an appointed member, if the relevant delegated decision maker is unavailable.  It also proposes that the current circulation of hard copies of the Council’s Constitution be ended in favour of a single electronic master copy on the Council’s website.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to recommend Council:

(a)              to amend Part 4.4 of the Council’s Constitution to effect the

changes to the ‘Delegated Decisions by Individual Cabinet

Members’ referred to in paragraph 7 above;

(b)       to agree that the website copy of the Constitution should be the master copy, that the routine circulation of hard copies should cease and that the Monitoring Officer be asked to amend the Constitution to make clear that the website copy is the definitive version.

Councillor Jean Fooks expressed unhappiness at the proposal. She was concerned that decisions could be taken by a Cabinet Member not fully versed in the subject matter. She felt that the current option to take it to the next cabinet meeting was sufficient. The Leader explained the context for the change and that it would be used infrequently.

RESOLVED:                        to recommend Council:

(a)       to amend Part 4.4 of the Council’s Constitution to effect the

changes to the ‘Delegated Decisions by Individual Cabinet

Members’ referred to in paragraph 7 above; and

(b)       to agree that the website copy of the Constitution should be the master copy, that the routine circulation of hard copies should cease and that the Monitoring Officer be asked to amend the Constitution to make clear that the website copy is the definitive version.