Issue - meetings

Sefton Constitution Amendment

It was moved by Councillor Watson, seconded by Councillor Brough that:

The current Sefton Constitution under Rule 82 enables Elected Members who are not Members of the Cabinet to submit an item to be placed on the Cabinet Agenda.

There are strict rules concerning the time frame, the relevance of the subject matter and the Councillor themselves have to submit a full written report detailing the issue.

The Councillor concerned is able to attend the Cabinet and speak and answer questions from other Members but is not allowed to vote.

Under the current conditions of the Constitution the Leader of the Council is consulted when the request is received and he/she has the delegated authority to veto the item so that it does not appear on the Agenda notwithstanding the fact that all the criteria have been met.

Council now believes that this is an undemocratic and unnecessary power and resolves to remove this section of the Constitution.

This will mean that all Members of the Council can be assured that they will have the ability to raise issues when appropriate with the main decision-making body of Sefton Council.

Following a debate and on a show of hands the Mayor declared the vote was lost by 40 votes to 16 with 0 abstentions.