Agenda item

Cllr Al-Samerai asked about the process of agreeing recommendations from the Commission. Julie Timbrell suggested using the Scrutiny process which involves officers putting back information together. Recommendations can then be devised in a number of different ways, , such as having an informal meeting with councillors , or putting together a number of very draft recommendations or leaving it for Councillors to agree the recommendations once they have reviewed the background information.

Stephen Douglass pointed out that the summary of emerging issues has some broad headings which can be added to.

The councillors thanked Julie Timbrell for putting in a huge amount of work in a short space of time.

It was agreed that information and feedback on other structures e.g. Community Councils needs to be retained, for future use.

Cllr Mitchell proposed that the ‘Emerging Issues’ document should be used as a basis for the draft recommendations. Broad headings should include:

• The need to address the powers of the Council Assembly, in order to improve democracy in the borough
• We should have full democracy in Council Assembly; how does this work (e.g. petitions)?
• The role of the councillor; e.g. in asking questions and putting forward motions
• Micro-details relating to meeting arrangements
• Location of meetings
• Communication – how do we ‘broadcast’ the meetings?

Cllr Al-Samerai added that issues should be covered including

• Having meeting papers in the public gallery
• Ticketing
• Having a constitutional officer present to explain to the public what is going on
• Having the ‘raw material’ of the meeting available in print or  webcast so that other organisations can use it
• Links to Scrutiny – Scrutiny reports presented to Council Assembly
• Community Council decisions reported to Council Assembly
• The Localism Bill – exploring the possibility of the council taking more power from central government

Cllr Morrissey proposed that an Equality Impact Assessment of current arrangements should be carried out. Deborah Collins said that the council was required to make reasonable adjustments to the Council Chamber for people with disabilities, but that we have to take the building as we find it and also take resources into consideration. She said it would not be possible to commit resources to an Equalities Impact Assessment in the next few weeks. Stephen Douglass pointed out a lot of the information that would be collected in an Equalities Impact Assessment was already there in the evidence that had been gathered – for example, in the Cafe Conversations on the involvement of BME groups and people with disabilities. Cllr Morrissey said she would send Julie Timbrell her thoughts on the subject.

A local resident present asked a question about the type of decisions that residents can influence. Julie Timbrell explained that very local decisions, for example on the use of a building, would go to Community Council, whereas a decision affecting a wider area, such as about a regeneration scheme, would go to Council Assembly.

Stephen Douglass said that officers would circulate an early draft set of recommendations in advance of the next meeting on 23^rd September. Deborah Collins said that she would need to check that anything suggested by the Commission was lawful, and the Director of Finance would need to check that recommendations were affordable.