Agenda item

To receive the minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 23 January, 2015 (copy attached).

The Minutes of the Standards Committee held on 23 January 2015 were submitted.

Councillor Barry Mellor had not submitted apologies for the meeting as he had been on holiday when he was informed he was the new member on the Committee.  Therefore, Councillor Mellor’s apologies to be removed from the record.

Matters arising:-

Councillor Bill Cowie had raised the question of a checklist of all City, Town and Community Councils to enable Standards Committee members to indicate their preference as to which meeting they would attend. 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer (DMO) confirmed she would be meeting with the Community Engagement Manager for him to confirm the dates of all the meetings and once this had been received then it would be circulated to all members of the Standards Committee.

Discussion ensued and the following points were raised:

(i)              It was requested that a copy of all City, Town and Community Council Clerk telephone numbers and email addresses be circulated for ease of contact. 

(ii)             The name of the City, Town and Community Council be added to any Councillors names for ease of identification within any minutes / notes or communication.

(iii)            Clarification to be sent to all members of the Standards Committee regarding their attendance at meetings when a Part II item was to be discussed.  The DMO explained their attendance would be as a member of the Standards Committee but also as a member of the public and, therefore, they should not be in attendance for the Part II items.  The informal mechanism would be very much at the discretion of the Council.

(iv)           A response from the Monitoring Officer (MO) was awaited, regarding relaying the Standards Committee views to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales concerning the introduction of a public interest test.

(v)             Code of Conduct training for Clerks of the City, Town and Community Councils to take place between 2.00 p.m. and 5.00 p.m. on19 May 2015 in County Hall, Ruthin.  Members of Standards Committee also invited to attend.  There have been a number of new Clerks and hopefully, they will attend, but also it would be considered a refresher training event for the long-standing Clerks.  Feedback to be presented at the Standards Committee being held on 22 May 2015.

(vi)           Advertising of the City, Town and Community Councils had been found to be lacking.  The Committee recommended that Notices be placed on the main streets close to the venues to encourage attendance by members of the general public.  The Clerk to the Ruthin Town Council had emailed the DMO requesting feedback re: advertising of meeting and venue.

(vii)          E-learning.  The previous training event held by the MO and the DMO had been filmed in the hope it could be used to deliver future training.  Unfortunately, following the viewing of the footage, it had been agreed that the quality of the footage had not been of an adequate quality for training purposes. 

(vii)     A trainer was being sought by the DMO to deliver training for Chairs and Vice Chairs  and an update would be put forward at the next meeting. 

RESOLVED that subject to the above, the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2015, be approved as a correct record.