Agenda for West Suffolk Standards Committee on Monday 28 November 2022, 5.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Chamber, West Suffolk House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds IP33 3YU

Contact: Helen Hardinge: Democratic Services Officer  Email: helen.hardinge@westsuffolk.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

23.

Election of Chair for 2022/2023

Minutes:

This being the first meeting of the West Suffolk Standards Committee since the Annual Meeting of Council in May 2022, the Monitoring Officer opened the meeting and sought nominations for the Chair of the Committee for 2022/2023.

 

Councillor Jim Thorndyke was nominated and duly seconded to be Chair for 2022/2023.

 

There being no other nominations and no objections, it was

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Councillor Jim Thorndyke be elected Chair for 2022/2023.

 

Councillor Thorndyke then took the Chair for the remainder of the meeting.

24.

Election of Vice Chair for 2022/2023

Minutes:

The Chair sought nominations for the election of Vice-Chair of the West Suffolk Standards Committee for 2022/2023.

 

Councillor Cliff Waterman was nominated and duly seconded to be Vice-Chair for 2022/2023.

 

There being no other nominations and no objections, it was

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Councillor Cliff Waterman be elected Vice-Chair for 2022/2023.

25.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

No apologies for absence were received.

 

Councillors John Augustine, Robert Everitt, Margaret Marks and Andy Neal were unable to attend the meeting.

26.

Substitutes

Any Member who is substituting for another member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant absent member.

Minutes:

No substitutions were declared.

27.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 145 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2022 (copy attached.)

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2022 were unanimously confirmed as a correct record and were signed by the Chair.

28.

Declarations of interest

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary or local non pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda, no later than when that item is reached and, when appropriate, to leave the meeting prior to discussion and voting on the item.

Minutes:

Members’ declarations of interest are recorded under the item to which the declaration relates.

29.

Public participation

Members of the public who live or work in the district are welcome to speak and may ask one question or make a statement of not more than three minutes duration relating to items to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only. If a question is asked and answered within three minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary question that arises from the reply.

 

As the meeting is taking place virtually, a person who wishes to speak must register by 9am the last working day before the day of the meeting. This can be done by sending the request to democratic.services@westsuffolk.gov.uk or telephoning 01638 719363.

 

If a member of the public cannot attend the meeting remotely, they may submit a written question or statement to Democratic Services by midday at the very latest on the day of the meeting and this will be read out on their behalf during the meeting.

 

There is an overall time limit of 15 minutes for public speaking, which may be extended at the Chair’s discretion.

Minutes:

There were no members of the public in attendance on this occasion.

30.

West Suffolk Standards Committee Update Report (Report No: STC/WS/22/002) pdf icon PDF 151 KB

Report No: STC/WS/22/002

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This report provided Members of the Committee with an update in relation to the number of complaints received by the Monitoring Officer in 2021/2022 and to date in 2022/2023.

 

The report also set out information on the new Independent Persons appointed by Council on 27 September 2022.

 

Complaints

 

The Monitoring Officer drew attention to the table set out in Paragraph 2.1 of Report No STC/WS/22/002 and highlighted that an additional column had been added, as requested by the Committee at their last meeting, to indicate where the subject of a complaint had resigned.

 

A calculation error in one of the table’s rows was also highlighted.

 

Members were informed that since publication of the agenda, two of the three outstanding cases had now been concluded. One was settled locally with the complainant and the other was found to be a breech with the sanction of a formal apology, which had already been received.

 

Independent Persons

 

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that two of the Independent Persons from the pool had been used for the two cases she just referenced, which had recently concluded.

 

The Committee was also advised that training took place with all Independent Persons in October 2022.

 

It was unanimously

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the content of the report was noted by the Committee.

 

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