Agenda and minutes

To note the appointments made by Council at the Annual Meeting on 20 May 2024:

·       Chair – Councillor Hilton

·       Vice-Chair – Councillor S. Chambers

1.1      The Committee noted the appointments made by Annual Council of Councillor Hilton as Chair and Councillor S Chambers as Vice-Chair of the Committee.

To receive from Members, declarations of the existence of any disclosable pecuniary, or non-pecuniary, interests and the nature of those interests in relation to any agenda item. Please see Agenda Notes.

2.1      There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2024.

3.1      The minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2024 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The opportunity is given to members of the public to put questions to the Chair provided that questions do not contravene the provisions set out Council Procedure Rule 10.01.

To ask a question at this meeting, please submit it to democratic.services@gloucester.gov.uk by 12 noon on Tuesday, 9 July 2024 or telephone 01452 396203 for support.

Questions and responses will be published at least 24 hours before the meeting. Supplementary questions may be put and answered during the meeting, subject to the relevant time limit.

4.1      There were no public questions.

The opportunity is given to members of the public to present a petition or deputation provided that any such petition or deputation does not contravene the provisions set out Council Procedure Rule 11.01.

To present a petition or deputation at this meeting, please provide the subject matter to democratic.services@gloucester.gov.uk by 12 noon on Tuesday, 9 July 2024 or telephone 01452 396203 for support.

5.1      There were no petitions and deputations.

To consider the report of the Chair of the Independent Remuneration Panel concerning the consideration of a new Member role.

6.1      Mr Graham Russell, Chair of the Independent Remuneration Panel presented the report. He explained that the Panel had been approached in May to consider payment of a Specia Responsibility Allowance for a newly created Member role which would support Cabinet Members on special projects and the maximisation of commercial income. Based on the evidence provided at the time relating to the role having engagement with the Leader, Deputy Leader and other Cabinet Members, and following an in-depth conversation with the Leader of the Council regarding the relationship of this role and that of normal Cabinet business, the Panel was recommending that a Special Responsibility Allowance equal to that of Committee Chair’s should be applied to the role, to be backdated to 20 May 2024.  

6.2      Mr Russell noted that the role could be perceived as an Executive role and the post-holder should therefore not be a member of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He stated that the Panel would wish to review this role after a reasonable period of operation. 

6.3      In response to a question from Councillor A Chambers, Mr Russell advised that similar positions existed in a number of authorities. The Panel had looked at the role descriptions and allowances for these posts and believed their recommendations were at the correct level given the size and complexity of the City Council and these were in line with other authorities who had similar roles.

6.4      In response to a question from Councillor S Chambers and whether the post should be subject to questioning at Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Mr Russell stated that the Panel had not explored the detailed working of all the councils which had equivalent roles and how they would interact with Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

6.5      The Chair stated that the individual currently appointed to the role did not serve on Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He commented that he had been satisfied with the proposal to call the role a ‘Portfolio Advisory Member’. He added that the individual Councillor was a member of the Airport Board and would attend relevant internal meeting with a view to to generating more income for the Council and forward thinking ideas. He noted that the role was instead of appointing an eighth Cabinet Member and he proposed that the recommendations be amended to require a report to be produced at the end of the year detailing the Portfolio Advisory Member’s contributions.

6.6      In response to Councillor Lewis’ assertion that the postholder should be scrutinised via questioning and produce a six-monthly report if they were to receive an allowance, the Chair pointed out that other remunerated roles, such as Group and Deputy Group Leaders, were not subject to any scrutiny.

6.7      Councillor Dubus-Chambers commented that she understood blue-sky thinking and the review of policies to be the role of the relevant Cabinet Member. Whilst she appreciated that there was a need to obtain sufficient information regarding Gloucestershire Airport, she raised concerns that the Council already had a substantial overspend and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To discuss any proposals by Members for future changes to the Council’s Constitution, including Council Procedure Rules (verbal item).

7.1     The Chair advised that he was inviting suggestions for areas of the Constitution that the Committee may wish to review. He proposed two areas for review:

1)    Questions to Cabinet Members. Formerly there had been an opportunity to ask verbal questions without notice, which had been revised by the previous administration, so that written questions had to be submitted in advance.  Some Members had asked for this to be reviewed and for verbal questions only to be reinstated.

2)    Drafting of motions to Council.  Recently, a number of motions had been exceptionally long and lacked clarity about what the Council was being asked to agree to.  The Chair suggested training be provided to Councillors on drafting motions and suggested that a word limit could be imposed to ensure motions were clear and succinct.

7.2     The Vice Chair supported the need for Members to receive training on drafting motions and suggested a template be designed with a recommended word limit, but noted that Members of the Council were representative of their communities and by restricting motions to a word limit would seem unfair as each individual had different abilities.

7.3     Councillor A Chambers stated that imposing a word limit would be unfair to Members to whom writing motions may not come naturally.

7.4     Councillor Wilson agreed that training would be beneficial, but added that it should not be compulsory.

7.5     Councillor Chambers-Dubus agreed that training would be helpful but should not be mandatory. She said that it would be useful to have a template available and that it might assist with ensuring the motions contained the necessary information but were not excessively long.

7.6     Councillor Lewis agreed that no word limits should be imposed, but accepted that some motions lost their effectiveness due to the volume of information, some of which could instead be saved for the debate. With regard to questions to Members, he stated that a more detailed response could be provided for a written question than for a verbal question.

7.7     The Chair suggested that Democratic Services write to each Member to ascertain their preference regarding verbal or written questions for the Committee to review at the next meeting. He agreed that a template to help draft a motions would be useful, along with an advisory word limit.

7.8     Councillor Lewis suggested reviewing previous motions to determine an appropriate form and advisory word limit.

7.9     The Vice Chair advised that she preferred written questions in advance, but highlighted the impact of preparing responses on the day-to-day work of Members and officers.  She added that it was important that members of the public can understand motion and they should be given the opportunity to view this in writing and then watch them be debated.

7.10    RESOLVED that General Purposes Committee consider proposals for these areas of the Constitution discussed at their next meeting.