Agenda item

To note the attendance by members of the Standards Committee at County, Town and Community Council and to receive their reports.

The Chair invited members of the Committee to share their observations from the city, town or community council meetings they had recently attended.

Town and Community Council member Gordon Hughes provided observations of the Llanynys Community Council meeting held on the 8 January 2019. He reported that details of the meeting time and location had been supplied to him promptly on request but that he did not have access to an agenda or reports. Mr Hughes advised that the community council had a bilingual website but the website did not provide access to agendas, minutes and reports.

Mr Hughes reported on the meeting which he found to have been conducted in a satisfactory manner with a good atmosphere and an excellent relationship between the councillors.

Mr Hughes had also attended a meeting of Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch Community Council on the 25 February 2019. As with the previous visit, Mr Hughes’ enquiry was answered promptly with details of the meeting but he was also supplied with the agenda and minutes. The council had a bilingual website but meeting documents were not available from it.

Members were advised that the meeting was conducted in good order, according to the agenda and with each item having clearly defined decisions and actions. The atmosphere and relationship observed between councillors was excellent. Mr Hughes reported that training was considered to be a high priority by the community council. Declaration of interest forms were available at the meeting and some were completed owing to interests in respect of local community grant applications. All members remained in the meeting room for the item.

Committee members Julia Hughes and Peter Lamb had attended a meeting of Efenechtyd Community Council held on the 2 January 2019.

Mrs Hughes advised that she had received a prompt response to a request for meeting information from the clerk, but the council’s website was not up-to-date. There was an agenda item for ‘public participation’ though there were no members of the public present on this occasion and she had observed that the Clerk provided good support to the Chair and the meeting. The councillors had discussed training issues at the meeting.

Mr Lamb reported that the item on declarations of interests was accompanied by a script outlining the purpose of the item. The Monitoring Officer added that Denbighshire County Council had shared a copy of its formal script used for the benefit of the public at webcast meetings.

Mr Lamb queried whether town and community councils viewed attendance by Standards Committee members as being helpful to assist their meeting arrangements? He also added that, as a non-Welsh speaker attending a meeting where the proceedings were generally in Welsh, he was mindful that his attendance could lead to a change in the language of the meeting and that he might bear this in mind when choosing which town and community council meetings he attended.

RESOLVED that the Committee notes the attendance by its members at meetings of city, town and community council meetings.