Issue - meetings

 It was moved by Councillor Sir Ron Watson CBE, seconded by Councillor Brough:

Democratic Changes to Council Procedures and Constitution

Council Procedures Public Involvement

Many Members of the Council are becoming increasingly concerned at what they consider to be a Democratic Deficit in the workings of the Council and believe that now is the appropriate time to bring forward suggestions as to how this can be addressed.

The Council Meetings

There is a significant gap between Council Meetings where this year there was a Full Council Meeting on 25 April with the Council not meeting again until 18 July.

There was an Adjourned Council Meeting reconvened for 16 May to agree the administration for the year but no questions or no Notice of Motion was allowed.

The latter two issues should be incorporated in the future into this meeting and recommendations brought forward as to how such a long gap can be avoided in the future.

Questions at the Full Council Meetings

Sefton should now adopt the policy that applies in many Councils whereby Councillors can ask questions of the Leader and Cabinet Members without notice at Full Council Meetings.

The period for this section should not exceed 30 minutes.

The Cabinet System

The experience of Members indicates that these meetings are very perfunctionary and on average last between 5 and 10 minutes.

Members of the Council have confirmed however that Cabinet Members meet in private for up to 3 hours and take the decisions at this time.

A system that allows 10 minutes for Elected Members, the public and the press and media to attend when set against 3 hours for the same agenda discussed in private is clearly not Democratic.

The Membership of the Cabinet should include on an Ex Officio basis the Leaders of any Political Party with a Membership of more than 5 Councillors and they should be entitled to all the papers.

These Ex Officio Members would have the right to speak at the Cabinet but would not have a vote.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees

The policy of the current administration only to allow Members of their Party to act as Chair is clearly against the spirit of the O and S function.

Sefton should therefore follow the example of many other majority-controlled Councils and ensure that to bring about an enhanced and more independent role of O and S, the Chairmanship should be allocated on a proportionate basis to Members of the other Parties.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members as a matter of course should have access to ‘Exempt’ reports on which Cabinet Members have subsequently made a decision.

Elected Member Database

Sefton has many Members with a wide range of experience in all areas.

Councils should maintain a database of this valuable experience and use it as one of the criteria when appointing Members to Non-Political Outside Bodies who ask for the Council to be represented on their Boards and Committees.

Commercial Confidentiality

There remains very great concern over many aspects of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54