Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Enabling presented a report detailing the background to a recommendation that had been made at a recent meeting of the Constitution Review Working Group.  Members were advised that the group had discussed the membership arrangements for the Climate Change Working Group during this meeting.  The subject had been discussed, following comments at the previous Council meeting raising concerns about the performance of the Climate Change Working Group.  There was recognition that the Climate Change Working Group needed to be effective, due to the importance of taking action to tackle climate change.  The Constitution Review Working Group had concluded that a change to the membership of the Climate Change Working Group, to ensure that this reflected, though did not form part of the formal political balance at the Council, would help to ensure that the group worked effectively.

During the Constitution Review Working Group meeting, reference had also been made to the terms of reference for the Climate Change Working Group.  Members had suggested a number of changes that could be made to strengthen the work of the Climate Change Working Group, including a restriction on the number of times a member of the group could send a substitute to attend meetings in his/her absence.  The Climate Change Working Group would be reviewing its terms of reference at the next meeting of the group and all of the suggestions that had been made by members of the Constitution Review Working Group would be considered at that meeting.

Council subsequently discussed the proposal to change the membership of the Climate Change Working Group in some detail. Members commented that during the international COP26 summit the Council needed to demonstrate its commitment to tackling climate change.  Concerns were raised by some Members about the effectiveness of the Climate Change Working Group to date and it was suggested that action needed to be taken to improve the output from this group in order to have a constructive impact on tackling climate change moving forward.  The Climate Change Working Group had existed for 2 years but recommendations had only been made by the group relatively recently.  It was suggested that a change to the membership of the group might help to ensure that recommendations were brought forward more frequently in future.

However, concerns were also expressed by some Members about the proposed changes to the membership of the Climate Change Working Group.  It was noted that attendance at meetings of the group had varied over time, but some Members had consistently attended meetings and suggested items for discussion.  The suggestion was made that, whilst action needed to be taken to improve the performance of the Climate Change Working Group, the proposed action would not necessarily result in the outcomes intended. 

Members noted that a reduction in the total number of members of the Climate Change Working Group to 9 Councillors would inevitably result in a reduction in the number of Members from opposition groups who could serve on the Working Group, as only one member would be appointed from each of these groups.  However, it was confirmed that interested Members who were not appointed to the Climate Change Working Group would be permitted to attend meetings to observe proceedings.

During consideration of this item, questions were raised about the rationale for proposing that there should be 9 Members in total appointed to the Climate Change Working Group.  The suggestion was made that there should be greater flexibility in terms of the total number of Councillors appointed to the group.  In addition, some Members questioned the need to set the membership of the Climate Change Working Group to reflect the political balance, given that this was not a legal requirement for informal working groups.

In accordance with Procedure Rule 18.3 a recorded vote was taken and the voting was as follows:

Members voting FOR the resolution:

Councillors R. Deeming, G. Denaro, M. Glass, S. Hession, R. Hunter, A. Kriss, K. May, M. Middleton, S. Robinson, M. Sherrey, C. Spencer, P. Thomas, M. Thompson, J. Till and P. Whittaker (15).

Members voting AGAINST the resolution:

Councillors S. Colella, S. Douglas, A. English, L. Mallett, P. McDonald, H. Rone-Clarke and K. Van Der Plank (7).

Members voting to ABSTAIN on the resolution:

Councillor C. Hotham (1).

RESOLVED that the membership of the Climate Change Working Group should be amended to reflect the political balance and there should be a total of 9 Members appointed to the group.