Meeting documents

The meeting was opened with a prayer by Councillor John Roberts.

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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillor C. L. Everett declared an interest in respect of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to the employment of his daughter within the Personnel Department.

Councillor G.O. Parry MBE declared an interest in respect of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to the employment of his daughters within the Finance Department.

Councillor W. J. Williams, MBE declared an interest with regard to Item 4 of these minutes (Reference to allowances payable to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the County Council respectively) and was not present at the meeting during any discussion or voting thereon.

Councillor W. J. Chorlton declared an interest in respect of Item 4 of these minutes (Para 6.3 of Schedule) and did not take part in any discussion or voting thereon. He also declared an interest with regard to any item of business which might relate to the employment of his daughters in the Environmental Services Department and the Education Department respectively.

Councillor John Roberts decalred an interest in respect of Item 4 of these minutes (Reference to allowances payable to Chair and Vice-Chair of County Council respectively) and was not present at the meeting during any discussion or voting thereon.

Councillor K. Thomas declared an interest in respect of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to the employment of his brother in the Housing & Social Services Department.

Councillor R. Ll. Jones declared an interest in respect of Item 4 of these minutes (Chair of the Audit Committee) and was not present at the meeting during any discussion or voting thereon).

Councillor G. W. Roberts OBE declared an interest with regard to any item of business which might relate to the employment of his daughter in the Environmental Services Department.

Councillor P. M. Fowlie wished it to be noted that all 40 Councillors on the County Council had an interest in Item 4 of these minutes (Members Allowances).

(It was pointed out at the meeting that there was an exemption at 5.1.3.6 on Page 207A of the Council Constitution, namely “Members can regard themselves as not having a personal interest in a matter to the extent that it relates to the function of the Authority in respect of an allowance or pension made under Section 18 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989”)

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TO RECEIVE ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON, LEADER, MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE OR THE HEAD OF THE PAID SERVICES

Congratulations were extended to Manon Wyn Williams from Rhosmeirch, Llangefni upon winning the Drama Medal at the Urdd National Eisteddfod in Carmarthenshire for her 40 minute play entitled “Câr Dy Gymydog”.

Also to Glesni Rhys Jones from Ysgol Gynradd Bodedern who was runner-up in the solo for Year 2 and younger competition, and to all those from the Island who had to date also received awards for their stage performances.

The Chair referred to the fact that Eisteddfod Môn had just celebrated its centenary and he congratulated the organisers and the local committees in their work to ensure the success of the Eisteddfod.

Councillor R. L. Owen congratulated 20 year old Wayne Hennessey from Beaumaris upon winning his first cap as Goalkeeper for Wales following their 2-2 draw with New Zealand last Saturday. Wayne was currently plying trade with Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Chair was requested to write to him in this respect.

On behalf of the Council, the Chair expressed his condolences to Councillor Bryan Owen upon the loss of his mother-in-law and to Councillor W. T. Roberts upon the loss of his sister.

Members and Officers stood in silent tribute as a mark of their respect.

The Leader took the opportunity of congratulating the County Council in that the number of days attributable to staff illness over the last year had fallen by 5000 days.

He also referred to the fact that this Council had quite recently declared its support for Wylfa B. In the White Paper published by the Department of Trade and Industry in May 2007 entitled ‘Meeting the Energy Challenge’, Wylfa had been listed as the eighth best location in a list of 14 prime nuclear sites for reactor development. The report was a discussion paper and there would be a five month consultation period before the Government decided whether or not to back nuclear energy.

The Leader sought Council support for the Chair to write to the Wylfa Site Stakeholder Group with a view to them also making a similar announcement in support of Wylfa B.

It was RESOLVED that authority be given to the Chair to write to Wylfa SSG in this respect.  

(Councillors J. Byast and G. O. Jones wished it to be noted in the minutes that they had not taken part in any discussion or voting thereon. Councillor J. A. Edwards wished it to be noted that he had abstained from voting on this matter).

Councillor C. Ll. Everett requested the relevant Council Department to ensure that the blue flag recently awarded to Newry Beach, Holyhead, be prominently displayed on site.

Submitted - A report by the Managing Director on proposed changes to the Council’s Corporate Governance arrangements including scrutiny and performance management arrangements.

An outline structure recommending changes to the Committee structure was included at Appendix 1 of the report to this Committee.

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Performance Management Arrangements

In 2004, the Council established a Performance Management Panel to oversee Performance Management on a Corporate basis. Membership included the Portfolio Member for Corporate Governance, other elected members from the Scrutiny and Overview Committees and the Corporate Management Team. Although this Panel had been overseeing the preparation of the Annual Improvement Plan and subsequent monitoring of targets therein, it had created another layer of performance monitoring and, to a degree, this had blurred accountability of responsibilities for performance when taking into account the role of the Principal Scrutiny Committee whose brief included holding the Executive to account for performance.

It was recommended that the Performance Panel be replaced by quarterly performance monitoring meetings between portfolio holders and directorates to monitor key targets and risks on a more regular and structured basis. This approach also sought to encourage the mainstreaming of a performance management culture in the Council.

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Scrutiny and Overview Arrangements

Notwithstanding the Scrutiny Procedure Rules the terms of reference of the Principal Scrutiny Committee was summarised at Appendix 2 of the report. It was proposed that the scrutiny of performance should be a regular feature of the Committee’s responsibility whereas the main responsibility of the 2 Overview Committees be that of policy development and review.

It was recommended that the terms of reference of the Principal Scrutiny Committee be approved by the Council.

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Audit and Risk Assurance Framework

An integral aspect of strengthening corporate governance was Audit and Risk Management. The terms of reference of the Audit Committee had been expanded to ensure greater clarity and focus on audit and assurance frameworks.

In addition, two sub-committees were recommended to deal with governance and risk management and customer focus reporting directly to the Audit Committee.

It was further recommended that the revised terms of reference of the Audit Committee and the establishment of a Governance and Risk Management Sub-Committee and Customer Focus (Complaints and Compliments) Sub-Committee be approved by the Council.

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Development Programme for Members and Officers

Since March, a number of awareness raising seminars on Corporate Governance and risk management had been held for members and officers with the support of an external faciliator. Arising from these seminars it was proposed to introduce a development programme of training and rolling basis for members and officers during the next 12 months to be funded by the WLGA.

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Officer Support

The introduction of revised arrangements as outlined above would require appropriate support at officer level. The Managing Director proposed to report back to the Executive shortly on this matter.

Following the dispatch of the agenda, officers after further consideration put forward an addendum for consideration by Council whereby the following changes be made to Para 4.2 (iii) of the report:-

(a) accepts the recommendation to estabish two sub-committees reporting to the Audit Committee namely the Governance and Risk Management and Customer Focus Sub-Committees (Appendices 4 and 5) but the membership of each sub-committee be 5 members to be politically balanced with the power for each sub-committee to co-opt up to two persons and the selection to be made by each of the two sub-committees. Any co-opted member will not have voting rights,

(b) and approves the Audit Committee’s terms of reference to include the terms of reference of the Governance and Risk Management and Customer Focus Sub-Committees as detailed in Appendix 4 and Appendix 5.

It was proposed and seconded that the Audit Committee should meet on a more regular basis i.e every two months. (The report stated that the Audit Committee should convene a minimum of 3 meetings per year).

The Leader enquired as to whether there would be any additional on-costs for the County Council and would they be met from within the Department?

The Managing Director in reply stated that the costs of re-organising and strengthining the Scrutiny function would be met from within his Departmental budget.

RESOLVED to accept the report and to:-

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Approve the revised terms of reference for the Principal Scrutiny Committee as detailed in Appendix 2 of the report.

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Approve the revised terms of reference for the Audit Committee as detailed in Appendix 3 of the report.

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Accept the recommendation to establish two sub-committees reporting to the Audit Committee, namely the Governance and Risk Management and the Customer Focus sub-Committees, as detailed in Appendices 4 and 5 of the report. The Audit Committee’s terms of reference shall include the terms of reference of the two sub-committees as detailed in Appendix 4 and Appendix 5 of the report. Both Sub-Committees to consist of 5 members politically balanced (to be drawn from the Parent Committee) and that the question of co-opting up to two persons (without voting rights) to those Sub-Committees be reviewed at a later date.  

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To replace the Performance Panel with quarterly Performance Management meetings as detailed in Paragraph 3.4 of the report.

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That a rolling development programme of training for members and staff be introduced as detailed in Paragraph 3.13 of the report.

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To note that the costs would be met from within the Managing Director’s Department.

Reported by the Corporate Director (Finance) - That the Local Authorities (Allowances for Members) (Wales) Regulations 2007, which had arisen out of a consultation begun by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2005, had recently been made by the National Assembly. The main provision was to establish an Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales which would recommend maximum rates of members’ allowances from 2008-09.

Other changes, however, took effect from 1 June 2007. The changes potentially affecting county and county borough councils in 2007 were:-

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increasing the maximum allowance for the Chair and Vice-Chair of a Licensing Committee;

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allowing the additional allowance payable to a Deputy Leader to be shared among more than one Deputy Leader, where such exist;

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requiring that allowances should not be paid during a period of suspension of partial suspension;

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specifying that schemes should provide for recovery of overpayments;

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requiring schemes to specify a time limit for submission of claims.

The previous regulations allowed a higher maximum Band 4 for Chairs of Scrutiny, Overview and Planning Committees with a lower figure of Band 5 for Chairs of other committees. The Change now added a Licensing Committee to the list of those who may be awarded the higher rate. Consistency would suggest that the scheme should be amended to pay the higher rate for the Licensing Committee Chair.

Details of this Authority’s special responsibility allowances were detailed within this report.

The Managing Director’s current proposals envisaged raising the status of the Audit Committee, a committee for which no allowance was payable at present. In order to reflect this status in the allowances scheme, it would be possible to pay a Band 5 allowance to the Chair of the Audit Committee. Under the present scheme this would restrict the number of allowances payable to other group leaders.

The Audit Committee Chair allowance at Band 5 would still be lower than the Band 4 allowance paid to Scrutiny, Overview, Planning and (subject of the decision above) the Licensing Chair. If the Council wished to go further to enhance the status of the Audit Committee, it might be possible to do so by seeking WAG’s specific consent to increase this allowance to Band 4 but which might result in a commensurate reduction in allowances elsewhere.

The Managing Director’s proposals also sought to introduce new sub-committees below the Audit Committee. If the Chairs of these Committees were to attract allowances, it would be necessary to look for reductions elsewhere. The obvious step would be to remove allowances from the Vice-Chair of Scrutiny and Overview Committees in order to keep the total number within the maximum of 20.

The Leader asked for the Council’s views in respect of the allowances currently payable to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the County Council.

(At this juncture, the Chair and Vice-Chair vacated their Chairs and left the chamber. The meeting was chaired by the Leader of the Council).

Councillor C. L. Everett referred to the allowances paid to the Chair and Vice-Chair in comparison to that paid to the Chair of the Principal Scrutiny Committee. He stated that it was possible for them to attend anything between 200-300 civic events per annum. He felt that the allowances paid was not sufficient to fulfil their duties and he proposed raising the Chair’s allowance to £7,000 (currently £5,000) and the Vice-Chair to £5,000 (currently £3,000) which was still less than that paid to the Chair of the Scrutiny/Overview Committees.

The Corporate Director (Finance) reported that these two allowances were paid under Section 22 and 24 of the Local Government Act, 1972, unlike other allowances paid to members.

Up to 2000, the allowances were £4,000 for the Chairperson and £1,500 for the Vice-Chairperson. Following consideration by the Executive on 27 March and 17 April 2000 these rates were reduced to £3,000 and £1,000 respectively.

Following inflationary upgrading, the allowances payable in 2003-04 were £3,068 and £1,023 respectively.

Should the Council wish to give consideration to the allowance paid to the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, it needed to be borne in mind that the only statutory authority to pay such allowances was to meet expenses of the office. The Corporate Director had no evidence of the expenses incurred directly by the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson and advised that it was a matter for the Council to consider exactly what the pressures were and what costs were reasonable.

Councillor P. M. Fowlie requested the Council to give consideration to increasing the subsistence and overnight allowances paid to Members and Officers on Council business, especially for overnight stays in Cardiff and London.

Councillor H. E. Jones also requested that consideration be given to travelling allowance rates.

The Leader in response stated that this was a fair question in that some staff with young families, found it difficult to attend meetings and could find themselves out of pocket.  

The Leader requested power to act from the Council to enable the Political Group Leaders to discuss the matter with the Corporate Director (Finance) and the Head of Service Corporate Services, with a view to increasing the allowances in question. Such meeting to also consider the travelling allowances figure.

(A) RESOLVED to accept the following changes to the Members Allowances Scheme:-

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To pay the higher rate for the Licensing Committee Chair (Band 4) but that there be no allowance to the Vice-Chair.

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That allowances should not be paid during a period of suspension or partial suspension.

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That in view of the change in the status of the Audit Committee, the Chair of that Committee be paid a Band 5 allowance.

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That a Band 4 allowance be only paid to the Principal Opposition Group Leader - awarded to the Leader of the largest group which has no member on the Executive.

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That no allowances should be paid to smaller group leaders.

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To request the Welsh Assembly Government to give consideration to increasing the amount payable to the Chair of an Audit Committee from Band 5 to Band 4.

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All of the above to be paid on the basis that the total number of special responsibility allowances shall not exceed 20 in total (The allowances paid to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the County Council are paid under different provisions).

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To adopt the amended scheme as presented in the Officers report with effect from 1st June, 2007.

(B) RESOLVED:-

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That a sum of £7,500 and £5,000 be allocated to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the County Council respectively, and

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That these sums would be effective from 1st June, 2007 and that for the future they be subject to the same rate of indexation as basic allowance.

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That power to act be given to Group Leaders, in consultation with the Corporate Director (Finance) and the Head of Corporate Services to consider the subsistence, overnight and travelling allowances of the Council.