Agenda item

The Head of Legal, Democratic and Property Services introduced the report which provided details of the outcomes of the last meeting of the Constitution Review Working Group (CRWG) which took place on 12^th March 2024. It was reported that various changes to the Council’s constitution were discussed at that meeting, details of which were included in the report. The Board was asked to determine whether to endorse the CRWG recommendations for onward consideration by Cabinet and full Council.

Following the presentation, Members asked a number of questions and the following was noted:

·       Proposal to remove reference to the former Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) from the Joint Arrangements document – It was noted that reference to GBSLEP was being removed from the Council’s constitution because the organisation was no longer in existence.

·       Changing the location of Planning call in process in the Council’s Constitution – The review of the Council’s constitution found that guidance in respect of the call in process for planning applications was not placed in the most logical position. It was therefore proposed that it should be incorporated into the Planning Procedure Rules at Part 14 of the Constitution, as detailed in Appendix B to the report.

·       Arrangements regarding Planning site visits – It was proposed by CRWG that temporary arrangements regarding site visits, introduced as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, be removed from the constitution. In response to a question about frequency of planning site visits, Members were advised to contact the Head of Planning, Regeneration and Leisure Services separately about the subject.

·       Clarification on the proposed changes to the Scrutiny Procedure Rules in respect of the types of items that would not be accepted for Overview and Scrutiny Board consideration and in respect of when a subject might not be debated by the Board – Members were of the view that the term ‘significant’ was imprecise when used in the last sentence of the first bullet point of paragraph 3.14 in the report. This stated: “It is therefore proposed that the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules should be amended so as to clarify that a subject may not be considered at a meeting if it has previously been debated at a meeting of the Board held in the preceding 6 months, unless there has been a significant change in circumstances”

·       It was felt by Members that the closing clause of the above sentence should read: “significant in the opinion of the Chairman, having discussed it with Officers”. Officers undertook to incorporate this into the updated document to be presented to Cabinet.

·       Reference was made to the Member Enquiries Guidance - ‘Best Practice for Handling Members’ Enquiries’ - document proposed as an appendix to Part 22 of the Council’s Constitution. It was felt that this document was much needed in terms of defining the level of service that Councillors could expect from Officers, and responsiveness to elected member enquiries.

Following the discussion, recommendations as printed in the report were proposed, seconded, and, being voted upon, agreed.

RECOMMENDED

1)    That the Joint Arrangements, at Part 7 of the constitution, be updated, as detailed in Appendix A;

2)    That the Planning Procedure Rules, at Part 14 of the constitution, be updated, as detailed in Appendix B and the Planning Call In process be removed from the Officer Scheme of Delegations at Part 6 of the constitution;

3)    That the Scrutiny Procedure Rules, at Part 12 of the constitution, be updated as detailed in Appendix C;

4)    That the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee Procedure Rules, at Part 13 of the constitution, be updated as detailed in Appendix D;

5)    That the amendments to the Member Officer Relations Protocol, at Part 22 of the constitution, whereby the Member Enquiries Guidance should be added as an appendix to that part of the constitution, be approved; and

6)    That the Committee terms of reference for the Licensing (Miscellaneous) Sub-Committees A and B for the number of Councillors be amended as detailed in Appendix F.