The Council’s emerging Corporate Plan included a priority objective to create an open Council by improving access to Council meetings, opening the Council to the public to ensure increased transparency, improving consultation and increased visibility by the end of 2023.  In order help achieve this objective, a review of the Constitution had been requested by Cabinet.  

The Constitution set out how the Council operated, how decisions were made and the procedures which were followed to ensure that these were efficient, transparent and accountable to local people. 

It was noted that whilst the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) had a constitutional role in reviewing the Constitution (Article 15), Cabinet was keen to play an active role in the review and proposed that a Cabinet Steering Group was established which would feed into the OSC.  All Members of the Council would have an opportunity to feed into the work of the Steering Group and ultimately any constitutional changes would have to be agreed by full Council.  It was noted that external professional input would also be required.

It was noted that should public consultation be required, depending on the scale and nature of any proposed changes to the way in which the Council operated that may impact on the public, this would be after consultation with the OSC and not at the same time.  This would be made clear in the terms of reference.  It was also agreed that meetings of the Group would be held in the public domain. 

To ensure that the Steering Group reflected a broad cross section of Members, it was agreed that the Steering Group comprised a minimum of eight Members in accordance with political balance requirements, or as otherwise determined to ensure that each political group serving on the Council was represented.  Proposed draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Steering Group were attached at Appendix A to the report.  Group Leaders would be contacted in due course for their nominations to serve on the Group.

RESOLVED: That:

1)    a Constitution Review Steering Group be established, comprising a minimum of 8 Members, in accordance with the political balance requirements, or as otherwise determined to ensure each political group is represented; and 

2)    the Terms of Refence be approved subject to clarification over consultation with the public and at what stage, if at all, and that meetings of the Group would be held in the public domain.