Meeting documents

Standards Committee
Thursday, 9th February, 2012 7.00 pm

Date:

Thursday, 9th February, 2012

Time:

7.00 pm

Place:

Lancashire Fusilier's Room, Town Hall, Bury

Present:

Councillors K Audin, R Brown and A Quinn

Co-opted:

A Brown (in the Chair) and D Gremson

There was one member of the public in attendance at the meeting.

Apologies for absence:

Councillors A Audin, M D’Albert, J Taylor and J F Walton; Mr K Wainwright and Mr A Withington

Buttons

Item	Description	Decision
Open
S.603	DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST	There were no Declarations of Interest made at the meeting.
S.604	PUBLIC QUESTION TIME	Councillor R E Walker asked the Committee to consider the action by the Leader of the Council and other Councillors participating in or supporting strike action on 30 November 2011, and whether this was appropriate in terms of public and staff "perception". Councillor Walker was informed that the Committee could only consider complaints against named Councillors, which would then be pursued through the local filtering procedures.
S.605	MINUTES (Attachment: 1)Copy of minutes held on 14 November 2011	Delegated decision: That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 14 November 2011 be approved and signed a correct record.
S.606	THE LOCALISM ACT 2011 - THE AMENDED STANDARDS REGIME (Attachment: 2)Report of the Monitoring Officer Preamble for item S.606	Delegated decisions: 1. That a further meeting of this Committee take place in March 2012 to make firm recommendations to Council on revised Standards arrangements. 2. That a copy of this report be forwarded to all Members of the Council.
S.607	STANDARDS ISSUES	There were no issues raised under this item.

The meeting started at 7.00 pm and ended at 7.35 pm.

**Preamble**
Item	Preamble
S.606	The Monitoring Officer submitted a report which set out changes to the system of regulation of standards and put forward options for consideration, in order to implement the changes. The issues to be addressed by the Council were:- - Whether to establish a Standards Committee and if so, to determine its composition. - To determine what should be included in the Code of Conduct. - To decide what arrangements should be adopted for dealing with Standards complaints and for taking action where a Member is found to have failed to comply with the Code of Conduct. - To determine arrangements for recruiting an ¡§Independent Person¡¨ in a way which ensures cover at all times. - To determine the form and nature of a new register of Members interests. - To determine which standing orders should be adopted by the Council in respect of withdrawal from meetings for interests. - To determine what arrangements would be appropriate for granting dispensations. Mr Gremson was of the view that any new procedures should specify that complaints which are trivial, vexatious or politically motivated would not be considered. Members felt that the Committee should consider the Monitoring Officer¡¦s report in depth so that firm recommendations could be put forward.