Agenda, decisions and minutes

Resolved to note that an apology for absence was received from Councillor Tye.

Resolved to note that an apology for absence was received from Councillor Tye.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 January 2024 were received.

The chair referred to a grammatical error, in minute 81 and with this amendment proposed that the minutes be approved. This was agreed.

Resolved that the minutes of the meeting held on 8 January 2024, be approved and signed as an accurate record of the meeting.

The chair invited those who wished to do so to make a declaration of interest.

Resolved to note that no declarations were made.

Resolved to recommend to Council that:

(i)                   Between the months of October to February Council meetings will commence at 5pm;

(ii)                 Between March and September Council meetings will commence at 6pm;

(iii)               The Budget Council meeting will continue to be held at 10am.

The circulated report of the Director of Law and Governance/Monitoring Officer, Sanjit Sull,  was received to consider and determine the start time of full Council meetings.

Mrs Sull presented her report and explained that start times of council meetings were a matter of local choice.  In November 2022 Council resolved to commence meetings at 6pm, rather than the previously agreed 2pm. It was agreed that this would be for a trial period and would be reviewed.

Officers provided data relating to attendance by councillors at the meetings, the agenda items discussed, duration of meetings, items where the business was not concluded, within the guillotine period, and those heard beyond the guillotine period along with the number of agenda items carried forward to the next meeting.

Due to the business conducted at the budget full Council meeting it was proposed that this remain at 10am. 

The decision on the time of the meeting was a matter for councillors, the report suggested that the following be considered when making the decision:

• Amount of business likely to be discussed at full Council meetings.  As a unitary authority the council has a significant number of decisions for consideration and it is important that there enough time to consider report and motions fully;
• Ability for effective and considered decision making;
• Health and safety.  Tiredness can negatively impact councillors in making decisions at meetings where the agenda has several complex reports;
• Level of councillor attendance;
• Ability for councillors to attend;
• Level of public participation and interaction in person;
• Ability to receive public participation via online link;
• Ability for public to attend in person i.e. access to public transport;
• Ability for the public to view via the council’s YouTube channel;
• Resource implications i.e. officer time
• Availability of venue
• Travel time to venue i.e. distance, health and safety issues.

The chair invited members to debate the start time of Council meetings.

In summary the following comments were made:

• The original decision to commence meetings at 6pm had been consulted on and the majority of responses indicated a desire to retain this start time;
• If agenda items were frequently not being concluded, could the guillotine period be extended and could the constitution be amended to extend the time scale from three to four hours. Members were reminded that the suggestion to change the guillotine time was not the subject of this report and would need to be discussed by the Constitution Working Group who considered time limits and general meeting management.
• Corby Cube was not a central location, and because of this some members had a two hour drive to get to council meetings being held at 6pm because of the rush-hour traffic.  Holding meetings at quieter times of the day for travelling purposes should be considered;
• Many people had concerns about driving at night, not just because of health issues, or eyesight problems which could affect all age groups. There were also concerns about lone-travellers feeling more vulnerable at night. It was felt that the council had a  ...  view the full minutes text for item DSC/87

Resolved that:

(i)            The comments and suggestions made during the review of the toolkit be noted and suggested changes be incorporated;

(ii)          The final digitalised version of the policy be presented for adoption at a future meeting of the committee, and that this form part of the induction programme;

(iii)         The toolkit be reviewed in 12 months.

The circulated report of the Chief Lawyer, Kamila Coulson-Patel was received for committee to consider a draft social media toolkit to support councillors to use social media safely.

The toolkit was appended to the report.

The chair thanked Mrs Coulson-Patel for the toolkit and before opening it up to debate by committee, referenced several minor amendments as follows:

·         Page 36 - Item 3

·         Equality and Discrimination penultimate line, that it read ...Councillors when acting or appearing to act…

·         Electioneering line 5 …use their private social media…

He opened up the report and appendix for discussion by committee.

The following points and comments were made:

·         Those councillors who used social media would use their own controlled pages, possibly linking to Facebook pages. Members asked if in future there would be a council controlled site. The Head of Democratic Services, Mr Smith, clarified that there was a facility within Mod.Gov for microsites where members could update social media as and when they wished to do so.

·         Members also asked for some clarity over the use of social media during the election period. Officers clarified that there was a need for transparency and it was necessary to be mindful and make sure that if a councillor was posting as a councillor that it was clear that was the case. Further details of the pre-election period, also known as purdah, could be found in the Code of Conduct within the Constitution.

·         Page 38 - Code of Conduct needs to specify ‘in official capacity’.

·         Page 38 - Tips on best practice whilst using social media – 4^th line add the word ‘political’.

·         Other comments were raised about using social media to post recordings of committee meetings during the meeting, and whilst councillors were aware this was permitted, some felt intimidated and  members needed to be mindful that the public needed to be made aware during a meeting if filming was taking place so they could say if they did not wish to be filmed. It was recommended that the chair’s discretion be used to adjourn a meeting if this was a problem and ask the member to refrain from filming.

·         Many members reiterated that filming by councillor colleagues could be intimidating, though they were aware that there was a legal right to do so though the necessity to film when meetings were recorded and put onto YouTube was questioned.

·         Reference was made to the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ section.  Members wished to encourage all to be mindful of what was posted, and to lead by example and make sure that posts were positive and respectful.  They were keen to be able to share details of events, stories and consultations along with best practice and felt this was a good use of the social media platforms.

·         Members also noted that they had to be mindful about sharing personal of confidential details on social media. Photographs, particularly of children, and under 18s, needed to be carefully managed.

Mrs Coulson-Patel thanked committee for their useful comments that she  ...  view the full minutes text for item DSC/88

Resolved that:

(i)             The planning committee function continue to be carried out by two separate committees; Planning Committee (North) and Planning Committee(South), using the terms of reference previously agreed;

(ii)          The in-year updates to the Constitution as detailed at appendix B  to the report be approved.

The circulated report of the Director of Legal and Governance (Monitoring Officer), Mrs Sull was presented to the committee along with two appendices, being the proposed revision to the planning committees’ terms of reference and a further appendix with a table of constitutional changes.

Mrs Sull presented to the report to committee, which suggested revisions to the current planning committee structure.   She explained that the current planning committee structure had been implemented in May 2023.  There were two planning committees, Planning Committee North and Planning Committee South, both dealt with planning matters within a geographical area of North Northamptonshire.

The report suggested that the two committees be amalgamated to form one Planning Committee for the whole of North Northamptonshire. This would mean that there would be 19 members, politically balanced, who would be fully trained. Meetings would take place monthly and would be held in Corby.

The chair thanked Mrs Sull for her report and opened the item for debate.

Members commented as follows:

·         Many members considered that one committee would not be able to adequately deal with the applications coming forward.

·         Comments about the cancellation of meetings where there was ‘no business to transact’ were made. Why was this happening and what was the need for two committees if meetings continued to be cancelled? It was noted that additional meetings had also been added to suit timings.

·         The geographical area of North Northamptonshire was deemed to be too large for one committee, and decision-making on planning applications was best made by local councillors who knew the area well or who could carry out site-visits if they had any queries.

·         Regarding the meetings being held in Corby, committee concurred that this was unfair and discriminatory, to expect people to travel to Corby from the South or eastern area, often taking up to two hours travel time was unacceptable.  

·         Committee reiterated that local knowledge was the key to good planning. There was already concern that many planners were consultants and did not live locally, relying on google maps to make recommendations, resulting in insufficient direct knowledge of the areas, leading to wrong decisions being approved, that had they come before committee would not have been agreed.

·         Many concerns about the large decrease in applications coming before committee were raised with members asking where the applications were going and who was making the decisions?  Officers clarified that this had been a PAS recommendation and had been approved by this committee in March 2023.

·         The chair clarified that many concerns had been raised at that meeting and there had been a lot of unrest at the time. Committee members had questioned the recommendations from the PAS review and still considered that their recommendation had not been the best was forward and suggested that this needed to be reviewed again.

·         Councillors felt that there was now too much delegation and that was why, so few items were coming forward to each of the committees for decisions to be made at committee level. This was  ...  view the full minutes text for item DSC/89