Agenda and minutes

To receive declarations of interest (if any)

Under this item the Assistant Director of Legal Services advised that the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, in her capacity as Monitoring Officer, had determined that a blanket dispensation should be applied to Councillors when discussing the Members' Allowances Scheme at Council and Committee meetings. This was done under section 33 of the Localism Act 2011 and would be in force until the day of local government elections in 2025. This would enable the Members' Allowances Scheme to be determined without Councillors falling foul of having a disclosable pecuniary interest.

To confirm the non-exempt minutes of the meeting of the Governance, Ethics and Standards Committee held on 19 January 2023.

RESOLVED:

To approve, as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2023.

The Assistant Director of Legal Services introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, informing members of Code of Conduct complaints against Councillors received during the period of 1 October 2022 to 28 February 2023.

RESOLVED:

To note complaints received by the Monitoring Officer between 1 October 2022 and 28 February 2023 alleging that Members had breached the Code of Conduct.

The Head of Democratic and Registration Services introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, informing members of the latest report from the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP), relating to member remuneration for 2023/24 in order to make recommendations to Council.

RESOLVED:

To note the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel in respect of Members' Allowances for 2022/23 and 2023/24 and recommend them to Council for approval.