Agenda item

(Monitoring Officer) To consider the attached report regardign the review of Article 17 – Access to Information within the Constitution and recommend its submission to Council for approval.

G Woodhall informed members that the Democratic Services team had noticed there are several parts of article 17 that we are no longer doing because the legislation had changed, or the Council had revised their processes. For example, when the print unit was disbanded, the Council was no longer putting copies of the agenda in the reception as well as changes to the length of time that key decisions had to be advertised on the forward plan.

Cllr Whitehouse raised a question about where the terms “clear working days” and “clear days” were used interchangeably throughout the document. G Woodhall confirmed that they both have the same meaning (5 days between, not including the day of publication for the agenda and the day of the meeting) and confirmed that changes would be made to ensure that the wording was uniform throughout the document.

ACTION 3: G Woodhall to update Article 17 amended document to ensure that the wording of the “clear working days” is uniform throughout.

Cllr Whitehouse commented that paragraph 42, which referred to the recording of cabinet decisions at meetings at committees, did not mention the Member Questions without Notice at Council. G Woodhall informed members that there were not any decisions made in Member Questions without Notice at Council. If there was an issue raised that needed a formal decision it would go to Cabinet or come back to Council with a report for it to be properly minuted.

Cllr Whitehouse enquired whether Appendix 2 in Article 17 regarding the relationship between Councillors and Officers was included as part of the induction of new Officers. G Woodhall said he was not sure if it was included in the Officer induction but would take it away to the people team to enquire if it was included.

ACTION 4: G Woodhall/N Boateng to speak to Joanne Budden (Service Manager – People Team) regarding Appendix 2 in Article 17 to see if the relationship between Councillors and Officers was included in the Officer induction.

Cllr Whitehouse raised an enquiry around EFDC no longer putting the agendas/notice of meetings on the boards outside the Civic Offices. G Woodhall suggested that we look into getting notifications of meetings up on the TV screens situated in the reception area of the Civic Offices to keep the public who don’t use computers informed of when the next public meetings are occurring.

ACTION 5: G Woodhall to enquire about getting notifications of public meetings on TV screens in Civic offices reception area (see if it is possible to link Mod.Gov calendar).

Cllr Heap raised a point around having all member questions written out fully in the minutes. G Woodhall informed members that Democratic Services had done research into this topic and found that no other Councils were fully minuting every question raised. So long as the minutes outline the topic of the question, who asked it and who it was addressed to, full details of the question can be found on the webcast.

Resolved:

That, subject to the requested amendments to Article 17 outlined above, the revised Article 17 be submitted to Council for approval.