Agenda item

To receive the minutes of the Corporate Governance Committee meeting held on 24 July 2024 (copy enclosed).

The minutes of the Governance and Audit Committee meeting held on the 24 July 2024 were presented for consideration.

Matters of accuracy –

The Chair stated that the name of the Committee on the agenda and in many reports was incorrect. The Committees name of the Governance and Audit Committee (GAC) to be corrected from the Corporate Governance Committee as stated in the minutes.

Page 8 – Investigations Terms of Reference should read; the GAC should see and be able to comment on the terms of reference before they were agreed upon and not the GAC should have seen and been able to comment on the terms of reference before they were agreed upon as stated in the minutes.

Page 13 – Conwy and Denbighshire Youth Justice Services should read, that the concerns were about the health board and the probation team and not that the concerns were from the health board and the probation team as stated in the minutes.

Page 14 – Draft Governance and Audit Committee Annual Report – the incorrect introductory paragraph had been included in the minutes.

Page 17 – Annual Governance Statement 2023-2024 – Lay member Nigel Rudd queried the inclusion of the Cost-of-Living Crisis in the Annual Governance Statement (AGS). Officers clarified that this would be removed from the AGS.

Page 17 – Annual Governance Statement 2023-2024 the resolve should read; as well as the Committee endorse the creation of a Corporate Governance Group and not a Governance and Audit Board as stated in the minutes.

Matters arising –

Page 8 – Urgent Matters – The Chair informed the Committee that he had attended a meeting of the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs (SCVC) which considered the five points raised by the Committee at the previous meeting. The Monitoring Officer stated that the SCVC had held a meeting to consider a draft terms of reference. Amendments had been made to the terms of reference to include the feedback from the SCVC and a final draft of the terms of reference was being prepared to be presented to members at a Members Workshop. An additional Cabinet meeting had been scheduled in the coming week on the roll out of the new Recycling Service.

Page 10 – Service Challenge: Planning Fees – The Monitoring Officer stated that the Council participated through the Planning Officers Group Wales, and they had been lobbying Welsh Government in respect of an increase in statutory planning fees. It was understood that a relatively routine increase would be expected in the coming months and work was ongoing by Welsh Government to review fundamentally how fees were set. The Council would provide the Government with information and feedback as part of the process through the Planning Officers Group.

Page 13 – Conwy and Denbighshire Youth Justice Services – The Monitoring Officer informed members that officers were liaising with their counterparts in Conwy Council to determine if an informal joint meeting could be arranged.

Page 18 – Update to Medium Term Financial Strategy – The Chair stated that the next report was due at the GAC November meeting and questioned if there was an update that could be given. The Head of Finance and Audit stated that work was ongoing on an updated Medium Term Plan and this was being presented to Cabinet in October. Following this, the Plan was being taken to Full Council in November for comments.

Page 21 – Governance and Audit Forward Work Programme – The Chair stated that the Statement of Accounts for 2022-2023 was scheduled to be brought to the meeting. However, the report was unavailable, and an explanation had been circulated to members of the Committee from the Section 151 Officer. Members commented that the subject specific language used in the explanatory briefing note provided was difficult to understand. The Chair stated that he would circulate a link to a training module to help members understand the language used following the meeting (DS to action).

RESOLVED: that subject to the above, the minutes of the meeting held on the 24 July 2024 be received and approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings.