Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair (Cllr Sabri Ozaydin) welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

There were no apologies received.

There were no declarations of interest made at this point in the meeting but Councillor Chris Dey made a declaration under item 8.

To receive and agree the minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2022

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 01 March 2022 were agreed.

To receive the Annual Report of the Councillor Conduct Committee 2021/22

The committee received a verbal update on this item of business from the Interim Director of Law and Governance.

The Interim Director advised that there is a need to recruit a second Independent Person to to help support the Monitoring Officer and the committee.  The position will be advertised soon and an update provided at the next meeting.

The committee thanked the Director for the update.

To receive a verbal update on the independent person apppointment.

There is a need to recruit a second independent person to cover a possible conflict of interest or availability of the current independent person.

Terry Osborne will be advertising and will be updating the committee at the next meeting.

To note the date of the future meetings as follows:

Wednesday 07 September 2022

Tuesday 20 December 2022

Tuesday 28 March 2023

Noted the dates of the future meeting as follows:

7 September 2022

20 December 2022

28 March 2023

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 excluding the press and public from the meeting for the items of business listed on part 2 of the agenda on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in those paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006).

The Committee AGREED in accordance with Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for consideration of Item 8 listed on Part 2 of the agenda, on the grounds that it falls within the following category of exempt information as specified in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, namely: “Information relating to any individual”.

To receive an update from the Director of Law and Governance on the complaints currently being considered.

The committee noted the updated list of complaints against councillors prepared by the Interim Director of Law and Governance and noted progress made on investigating those complaints.

A declaration of interest was made on this item by Councillor Chris Dey as he is named in one of the complaints in the report.

Terry Osborne suggested a 3 year review of complaints be carried out to identify patterns and trends and that an annual review of the register of interests be undertaken each year.