To answer questions from Members who have given the appropriate notice.
Minutes:
Question from Councillor Stuart Lees to Councillor Nick Wilton, Chair of the Governance & Resources Committee:
“Following the recent investigation into a complaint made to Derbyshire Dales District Council What is the district council going to do with regards to improving itself and how is this to be done publicly.”
Councillor Nick Wilton provided the following response.
RESPONSE:
The item relating to the complaint and actions to be taken forward is on the agenda today for discussion and agreement amongst Members. There are clear recommendations in that report in respect of an action plan to address where we, as a Council, have fallen short and a suggestion of a governance review.
Question from Councillor Susan Hobson to Councillor Nick Wilton, Chair of the Governance & Resources Committee:
“My request to the Leader, Councillor Steve Flitter, to have this report discussed, openly and transparently, at Full Council was denied.
All Councillors were informed that this matter would be discussed at an EXTRAORDINARY meeting of this committee.
This report is instead being discussed by 9 Councillors tonight at Item 12 on a packed agenda, following a lengthy statement from Derbyshire Dales District Council this weekend.
Can you explain how Derbyshire Dales residents can have confidence in this process?”
Councillor Nick Wilton provided the following response.
RESPONSE:
The Council’s Constitution is a document agreed by Members and Members have chosen to give responsibility for matters of governance, corporate complaints and HR to this Committee and to these 9 Members. This is precisely the right place for a conversation on improving the Council’s governance.
Cllr Hobson is accurate, it was the plan to call an extraordinary meeting to discuss the lessons learned from the complaint against the district council. On reflection, it was better to bring the issues set out in the covering report to the attention of Members sooner than that. This planned meeting of the Committee has been in the calendar for many, many months and it was reasonable to assume that all the Committee’s Members would be able to attend because of the notice given. Items that should have come to this meeting that were considered non essential have been deferred to next month’s meeting to provide additional room on the agenda for discussion.
As chair, I was supportive of considering this report at this meeting. As mentioned previously it was already fixed in the diary and I was keen that this be considered at the most immediate session reasonably practicable. I felt that if it were to be considered during an extraordinary meeting, this would have risked further delay which I did not think was appropriate.
The public can take confidence from this Council pro-actively sharing a report into the investigation and a covering note with Members and the wider public via this agenda. Secondly, that we should be able to have a full conversation about moving forward as a Council in public and thirdly, that, subject to a decision Members may wish to make, we have committed to returning to the Committee next month with an update on any exploratory conversations that the Director of Corporate and Customer Services has with the LGA.