Agenda item

Questions and Motions to Council

Members considered a report of the Joint Head of Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer on whether there should be any changes to Part 4 of the Constitution – Council Procedure Rules.  The report looked specifically at Rule 8 (Questions by the Public), Rule 9 (Questions by Councillors) and Rule 10 (Motions on Notice). 

Members gave consideration to the number of questions and motions allowed, the overall time for consideration of questions and motions, the order of the agenda, the provision of urgency, scope and reasons for rejection.  In their analysis, Members compared the Authority’s rules with that of five neighbouring Local Authorities. 

In relation to Questions by the Public, Members were not satisfied with the current wording – ‘Members of the public who on the Register of Electors for/or who are not domestic rate payers to the District’ - and noted that the Housing Allocation Policy defined a local connection to the area which maybe more appropriate.  This wording was requested for the following meeting on which to make a decision. 

The Committee considered that the current rules around times for public questions were adequate but, on considering the scope, Members wished for questions to be rejected where they related to an ongoing complaint being dealt with either by the Council or the Local Government Ombudsman.  Including this minor change, Members wished for the scope for public questions to also be applied to questions on notice by Councillors. 

When considering motions by Members at meetings of Council, the Standards Committee were satisfied that the limitation to one per Member per meeting was a satisfactory limit.  However, they wished to give more consideration to the length of time allowed for the mover of motions (currently set at 10 minutes).  It was agreed that this would be further considered at the forthcoming meeting of Standards Committee with a view to reducing this to five minutes. 

Members had some queries around Procedure Rule 10.2 and 13.2 and it was agreed that these would be further considered at the forthcoming meeting of the Standards Committee. 

RESOLVED – That:-

(1)       The next meeting of the Standards Committee would consider changes to questions and motion as follows:-

(a)     defining a local connection (public question time);

(b)     length of time allocated for moving motions (motions on notice);

(c)     procedure rules 10.2 and 13.2; and

(2)       The following changes to questions and motions be agreed for Council approval:- 

(a)     adding ongoing complaints to the scope for rejection of public questions;

(b)     replicating the scope for public questions for questions on notice by Councillors; and

(c)     introducing a limitation of one motion per member per meeting to replicate the limits on questions.

            (Deputy Monitoring Officer)

NB: Members of the Standards Committee also expressed their concerns in regard to the layout of the Council Chamber requesting for all Members to face the Chair which may diffuse any hostility within the room.  This matter will be picked up separately to the work of the Standards Committee.