changes to the decision making structure and terms of reference of the bodies established at this meeting.

3.2 It is proposed to separate out the functions currently contained within the Regulatory Committee and establish a separate Planning Committee and a Licensing Committee, leaving the Regulatory Committee to deal with miscellaneous non executive functions, appeals and staffing issues. It is therefore proposed that this Committee is renamed as the General Purposes Committee.

3.3 These committees were originally separate but were merged into one committee in May 2005. Experience has demonstrated that having one committee is not as effective as had been anticipated at the time. There is a lack of clarity over the nature, structure and functions of the Committee which is unhelpful.

3.4 In addition, the Licensing Act 2003 requires the Council to have a full Licensing Committee composed of between 10 and 15 members. Currently this is fulfilled by the Regulatory Committee, albeit with 17 members. Although it is possible for the Licensing Committee to carry out other functions, the Act anticipates that the primary function of the Committee will be Licensing. A Licensing Committee may arrange for its functions to be delegated to sub committees or officers (save for some determinations which may not be delegated to officers). Where decisions are delegated to a sub committee, this has to be to a sub committee (called panels in the Act) of 3. As there cannot be a sub committee of a sub committee, the Authority currently convenes 3 members of the Licensing Sub Committee of the Regulatory Committee to make decisions. This is not a clear decision making structure.

3.5 If licensing is established as a full committee it is appropriate for the Council’s development control and planning functions also to be so established. It is proposed that this will be called the Planning Committee. Having a full Planning Committee will provide a more visible public profile for this important function and the change of name will reflect that the work of the Committee is as much about facilitating planning as it is about controlling development. In addition members of the public do not find the label ‘development control’ helpful

3.6 If the planning and licensing functions are removed from the Regulatory Committee’s terms of reference, that leaves a range of miscellaneous functions (described in the Local Government Act 2000 as non executive functions), together with existing appeals and human resources issues. It is proposed to rename this as the General Purposes Committee.

4 Terms of Reference, Membership and Sub Committees

4.1 It is proposed that at this stage the terms of reference for the Planning and Licensing Committees are identical to the terms of reference for the existing sub committees. The terms of reference for the new General Purposes Committee will be those terms of reference of the Regulatory Committee not transferred to the new committees. The proposed terms of reference are set out in the amendments to Article 8 (Appendix 1 to this report).

4.2 The Licensing Committee is required to have between 10 and 15 members. It is recommended that it and the General Purposes Committee have a membership of 10. The membership of the Planning Committee will be 15. Licensing Committee may not have substitute members but these are possible for the other two committees.

4.3 It is not proposed that the Planning Committee has any sub committees. Under the Licensing Act 2003, if the Licensing Committee wishes to delegate its decision making to a sub committee or sub committees, these have to have a membership of 3 (referred to as panels). It is proposed that Licensing Committee has one subcommittee of 3 to which all licensing decisions stand referred. Although the Committee itself may not have substitute members, the sub committee can. It is therefore proposed that all members of Licensing Committee who are not members of the sub committee are the substitute members of that sub committee. Over the next few months and in the context of the revision of the Constitution, it may become clear that there are functions which are better carried out by the full Committee.

4.4 The reason for having one sub committee is to focus on building up a body of experience on these decisions. There are relatively few decisions which are now being taken under the licensing legislation and it is important that members gain a continuity of experience which is not possible at the moment.

4.5 It is also recommended that the General Purposes Committee establishes an Appeals Sub Committee with a membership of three for similar reasons. All other members of the Committee will also act as substitutes for those three members. It may be that it becomes necessary in the course of the year to establish a staff appeals sub committee but at the moment the intention is that all appeals to this Committee will be dealt with by the appeals sub committee.

4.6 It is proposed that the Chairs of these three committees receive Special Responsibility Allowances as follows (to be increased with CPI as at 1 April 2007):

Chairman of the Planning Committee £7500

Chairman of the Licensing Committee £1875

Chairman of General Purposes Committee £1875

In effect, this is identical to the scheme already agreed by Council as the roles are more or less identical. (The Chairman of Planning equates to the Chairman of the Regulatory Committee, the chairman of Licensing Committee equates to the Vice Chairman of Regulatory (Licensing) and the Chairman of General Purposes to the Vice Chairman of Regulatory (HR and Miscellaneous). In reaching this view regard has been had to the current scheme. It is not a substantive amendment to the scheme and there is therefore no requirement to reconvene the Independent Review Panel.

4.7 There is a separate report on this agenda which proposes changes to the terms of reference of the Scrutiny Committee.

4.8 No other changes are proposed to the committee structure as above, their terms of reference, or the size of any of these committees. It is recommended that Council formally reaffirm these arrangements as set out in the Council’s Constitution version 3.16 (as available on the Council’s website at: www.iow.gov.uk/council/what_is_a_council/images/Constitution.pdf.

5 Political proportionality

5.1 The political balance requirements of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990 apply to any committees and sub committees established under the Constitution, except for the Standards Committee and the Licensing Committee. Political balance may be applied to Licensing Committee by agreement. Political balance also applies to any scrutiny arrangements the Council establishes. The political balance rules do not apply to the Executive.

5.2 The Council has in the past disapplied proportionality in respect of the Scrutiny and Regulatory Committees and the Investment Panel but agreed to re-apply it last year. It is proposed that the Council retains political proportionality on its committees for this municipal year.

5.3 Unless disapplied the Council has a duty when allocating or reviewing the allocation of seats on committees to give effect so far as is reasonably practicable to the following four principles:

(i) all the seats are not allocated to the same political group;

(ii) the majority of the seats go to the political group in the majority on the full Council;

(iii) subject to the above two principles, that the total number of seats on the ordinary Committees of the Authority are allocated to each political group in the same proportion as the group's representation on the full Council and;

(iv) subject to the above three principles, that the number of seats on each committee are allocated to each political group in the same proportion as the group's representation on the Council.

5.4 The number of members on the Council in political groups are as follows:

Conservative Group : 36 members

Independents: 4 members

Liberal Democrats: 4 members

Labour Group: 2 members

Number of members: 46 (plus Councillors Foster and Chapman who are not members of a political group)

The proportion of each group’s representation on the Council is therefore:

Conservatives: 75%

Independents: 8.34%

Liberal democrats: 8.34%

Labour: 4.1%

(Councillors Foster and Chapman as individuals who are not members of groups are not included in this calculation)

5.5 If the proposal to create 3 new Committees is agreed the total number of seats available on the Council’s main committees (excluding the Standards Committee but including Licensing) is 99. (Scrutiny and Planning Committees to have 15 members, Licensing and General Purposes to have 10 and all other committees to have 7)

To preserve the proportions seats need to be allocated as follows

2 Committees with 15 members each: 11:1:1:1 (C:I:LD:Lab)

2 committees with 10 members each: 7:1:1:1 (C:I:LD:Lab)

7 Committees with 7 members each: 5:1:1 (C:I:LD)

Therefore:

Conservatives total seats: 71

Independents total: 11

Liberal democrats total: 11

Labour total: 4

This is two seats less than the total number available, leaving one vacancy on the Scrutiny Committee and one on the Planning committee. It is proposed that Councillor Foster is allocated the seat on Scrutiny and Councillor Chapman the seat on Planning.

6 Allocation of Seats

6.1 The allocation of seats was previously delegated to the Council’s Assistant Chief Executive, in accordance with the wishes of the political groups. It is proposed that each group provide nominations for each Committee to the Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services immediately after annual Council and the final list of members of each Committee will then be published. In respect of the sub committees of both Licensing and General Purposes, it is proposed that they appoint members to those subcommittees at their first meeting. In both cases, these meetings will need to be held shortly after annual council as there are pending decisions.

6.2 The Council recently established the Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee to carry out a range of functions relating to the Undercliff Drive investigation. The membership of this Committee should remain unchanged and nominations for this committee need not be provided.

7 Scheme of Delegation

The current scheme of delegation is set out in the Council’s Constitution, version 3.16. It is recommended that Council reaffirm the current scheme with the necessary amendments to reflect the changes to the Committee structure outlined above.

8 Appointments of Chairmen and Vice Chairmen

It is for Council to approve the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the committees and attached at Appendix 2 is a list of the proposed nominations received. Except for the Vice Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee which Council agreed last year should be the responsibility of the Scrutiny Committee. It is not proposed at this stage to make appointments to the Vice Chairs of Licensing or General Purposes Committees.

9 Constitutional Amendments

The creation of the three new Committees requires amendments to Article 8 of the Constitution as attached at Appendix 1 and Council is asked to agree this new Article

There will be a range of amendments required throughout the constitution to reflect the changes to the committee structure. It is recommended that these drafting amendments are delegated to the Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services.:

There are also recommendations in another report on this agenda to amend the terms of reference to the Scrutiny Committee

10 Champions

Four champions were appointed last year – these being elected Members appointed by the Council to Champion various themes as determined by Cabinet each year. This year it is proposed to appoint five Champions and the proposed themes for this year are as set out below:

Housing and Homelessness

Older People

Children

Civic Pride

Heritage and Environment (new)

The nominations to these Champions are:

Housing and Homelessness - Cllr Lora Peacey-Wilcox

Older People – Cllr Margaret Webster

Children - Cllr George Cameron

Civic Pride - Cllr Brian Mosdell

Heritage and Environment (new) – Cllr Vanessa Churchman

11 Appointments to Committees and Outside Bodies

11.1 The Council has recently advertised for two Chief Officer posts – the Director of Legal and Democratic Services and the Director of Customer Services. Appointments of Chief Officers are a matter for members in the Council constitution. In order to effect this, Council is asked to agree to the establishment of two time limited Appointments Committees of 5 members, one for each currently advertised Chief Officer post. Proportionality means that these will consist of 4 Conservative Councillors and 1 from the other groups represented on the Council. The Chairman of each Committee will be appointed at the first meeting of the Committee.

11.2 As with other committee appointments, it is proposed that each group provide nominations for each Committee to the Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services immediately after annual Council. The terms of reference for each Committee will be to undertake the interview and offer permanent appointments to the relevant Director post. Each Committee will also undertake such other duties as form an appropriate part of the selection process as advised by the Director of Organisation Development.

11.3 No changes are suggested at this stage to the appointments to Outside Bodies so it is suggested that the existing appointments are confirmed but that Council reserves the option to review these during the year.

12 Financial and Legal Implications

There are no associated costs with the proposed changes in appointments and amendments to the Constitution. The report was drafted by the Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services and there are no additional legal comments.

13 Evaluation/Risk Management

The proposed committee structure and membership more clearly reflects the functions of the Council in a way which it is hoped will be more straightforward for the Islands residents. In addition, the new structure should promote a degree of specialisation in quasi judicial decision making which will enhance the Council’s reputation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

That Council agrees:

(a) To establish a Planning Committee, Licensing Committee and General Purposes Committee with the terms of reference as set out in Appendix 1

(b) That there shall be 15 members of the Planning Committee and 10 members each of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee

(d) To reaffirm the size and terms of reference for all committees (subject to the amendment in (a) and (b) above and to the report on Scrutiny elsewhere on this agenda)

(e) To allocate seats to political groups in accordance with the proportionality rules

(f) To allocate seats on the Licensing Committee in proportion to the representation of political groups on the Council

(g) To appoint the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the Council’s committees as detailed in Appendix 2

(h) To confirm that the Chairmen of the three new Committees are to receive Special Responsibility Allowances as set out in paragraph 4.6

(i) That nominations for each Committee will be provided to the Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services within week of this meeting

(j) To confirm that the membership and Terms of Reference of the Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee remains unchanged

(k) To establish a sub committee of Licensing and a sub committee of General Purposes Committee with the terms of reference as set out in Appendix 1, appointments to those sub committees to be made at the first meeting of the main committees

(l) To reaffirm the Council’s scheme of delegation

(m) To approve the amendments to Article 8 of the Constitution as set out in Appendix 1

(n) To delegate to the Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services the necessary consequential drafting amendments to the Constitution

(o) To appoint Champions as set out in paragraph 10 above with the roles as set out in Appendix 3 and the payment to them of a Special Responsibility Allowance

(p) To appoint two Appointment Committees (Appointment Committee for the Director of Legal and Democratic Services and the Appointment Committee for the Director of Customer Services) with a membership of 5 to be allocated in accordance with political proportionality to 4 members of the Conservative Group and one member from other groups on the Council

(q) To confirm the existing appointments to outside bodies but that Council reserves the option to review these during the year.

14 BACKGROUND PAPERS

There were no documents material to the preparation of this report which are required to be listed.

15 APPENDICES

Appendix 1 – Revised Article 8

Appendix 2 Nominations for Chairmen and Vice Chairmen

Appendix 3 – The role of the Council Champions

Contact Point : Alison Lowton, ( 01983 823203, email: [email protected]

ALISON LOWTON

Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services

2. Gaming by means of machines.

3. Competitions and Amusements (Bingo).

4. Caravan Site.

5. Cinemas.

6. Dangerous Wild Animals.

7. Breeding of Dogs.

8. Rag Flock and other Filling Materials.

9. Gaming.

10. Game Licenses.

11. Guard Dogs.

12. House to House Collections.

13. Late Night Refreshment Houses.

14. Lotteries and Amusements.

15. Pet Shops.

16. Pleasure boats and boatmen.

17. Regulation of Street Collections.

18. Street Trading.

19. Theatres.

20. Zoos.

21. Minibuses.

22. Animal Boarding Establishments.

23. Sunday Trading.

24. Private Place of Entertainment.

25. Public Entertainments.

26. Riding Establishments.

27. Scrap Metal Dealers.

28. Sex Establishments.

29. Slaughterhouses and Knackers Yards.

30. Nurses Agencies.

31. Track Betting.

32. Door Staff.

33. Poisons, Explosives.

34. Pool Promotions.

35. Sports Grounds.

36. Marriage Premises.

37. Performing Animals.

38. Dairy and Dairymen.

39. Open Air Events under the Isle of Wight Act.

40. Hackney Carriages and Private Hire Vehicles.

41. Movement of Animals.

42. Liquor Licensing.

and any other registration or licensing function not specifically delegated elsewhere in this constitution, or by the law.

General Purposes Committee

1 To undertake the functions set out in Schedule 1 of the Local authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Order 2000 (generally, those functions which are not to be carried out by the authority’s executive (cabinet) save where these functions are carried out b Council or have been delegated to officers.

2 To determine appeals against decisions of the authority where the law, or Council policy, requires the appeal to be determined by elected members in relation to the following functions:

Awards

School Transport

Curriculum Complaints

Staff Disciplinary, Grievance or Dismissal

Adoption and Fostering

Registration of Homes

Access to Social Services Files

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Appeals

Business Rate Hardship

Rights of Way Orders

Highway Orders

Tree Preservation Orders

Any other function involving an appeal process not specifically delegated elsewhere in this constitution, or by the law, where no other delegation exists.

3 To oversee arrangements, including the appointment of the pool of members from which independent appeal panels are selected by the Clerk to the Education Appeals Committee, for school exclusions, admissions and special education needs appeals.

4 To adopt, where the agreement of recognised trades unions is not secured, policies relating to:

· Terms and conditions of employment (including procedure for

dismissal)

· Recruitment, Selection and Appointment

· Training and Development

· Pay and other benefits

· Redundancy and redeployment

· Performance and Motivation

· Capability and conduct

· Attendance at Work

· Equalities and Diversity

· Other areas

· Industrial and employee relations identified by the Head of Human Resources as requiring policy

In all cases where trades union agreement is secured policies will be adopted under powers delegated to the Chief Executive or the Head of Human Resources.

5 To hear appeals against dismissal by staff not on JNC for Chief Executive and Chief Officers’ conditions of service.

6 To undertake functions (other than the appointment of staff) required to be undertaken by elected members in relation to staff employed on JNC for Chief Executive and Chief Officer conditions of service and/or the Officer Employment Rules.

Note: under s13 Local Government Act 2000 and the Local Authorities (England)(Functions and Responsibilities Order) 2001 responsibility for the deployment of staff and for the monitoring of the size and deployment of the establishment are the responsibility of the Cabinet.

Meetings

Meetings (of the Committees and Sub Committees) will commence at a time that in the opinion of the Chairman meets the needs of applicants, objectors or other interested parties.

Quorum

The quorum of Planning Committee will be 8. The quorum of Licensing and General Purposes Committee will be 5. The Chairman will chair, unless absent in which case the meeting will elect one of the present Vice Chairmen to chair the meeting.

Sub Committees

The Council will also appoint the following sub-committees:

· Licensing (Determinations) Sub Committee

· General Purposes (Appeals) Sub Committee

Each sub committee will have a membership of 3. The quorum for each sub committee shall be 2.

The Licensing (Determinations) Sub Committee will carry out all the functions of the Licensing Committee which require a decision on a grant, renewal, refusal, revocation, variation, cancellation, or imposition of conditions, (and appeals against any such action).

The General Purposes (Appeals) sub committee will determine all appeals within the remit of the General Purposes Committee.

APPENDIX 2

COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS – 2007/08

Scrutiny Committee:

Chairman – Cllr Geoff Lumley

Vice Chairman – to be appointed by the Scrutiny Committee

Audit and Performance

Chairman – Cllr Anne Bishop

Standards Committee:

Chairman – Mr Mark Southwell

Planning Committee:

Chairman – Cllr Ivan Bulwer

Vice Chairman – Cllr Susan Scoccia

Licensing Committee

Chairman – Cllr Susan Scoccia

General Purposes Committee

Chairman – Cllr Lady Sarah Pigot

Investment Panel

Chairman – Cllr Colin West

Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee

Chairman – Cllr George Brown

Policy Commission for Safer Communities:

Chairman – Cllr David Williams

Policy Commission for Children and School Results:

Chairman – Cllr Gillian Kennett

Policy Commission for Economy, Tourism, Regeneration and Transport:

Chairman – Cllr Jonathan Fitzgerald-Bond

Policy Commission for Care, Health and Housing:

Chairman – Cllr Erica Oulton

APPENDIX 3 Champions

Role and Key Tasks

The role of the "Champion" was established by the Council to give a positive focus to the Council's ongoing commitment to ensuring that full consideration was given to the needs of older people/children/civic pride/housing and homelessness in all aspects of the Council's activities.

Champions will be appointed by the Council to four themes determined by the Cabinet.

Purpose of Role

To act as a positive focus for the local community at elected Member level in respect of the relevant section of the community or range of activities designated by the Council so as to ensure that full consideration is given to the impact of Council activities and decisions upon the section of the community or range of activities and to highlight areas of need amongst the Island community at large.

Key Tasks

signposting - councillors know how the system works and who to contact. They are well-placed to advise local people about local issues and can point people in the right direction;
monitoring - councillors can help local people make progress by overseeing and intervening on their behalf;
acting as an advocate - councillors have the necessary status, skills and abilities to tackle failure. When things break down or go wrong councillors, as elected representatives, are well placed to intervene and seek redress on behalf of local people; and
representing - councillors can spot emerging issues and trends. They will know when a series of individual issues indicates that there is a real failure in the system that needs to be taken up the council itself and they can feed views into the local authority and it’s partnerships

The role should not distract from the delivery of council priorities

Entitlements

1. The Champions receive (in addition to their basic allowance) a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) as set out under the Scheme of Members allowances.

2. The Champions receive secretarial and administrative support from the Members Support Office. Support is also provided by Strategic Directions and Heads of Service as appropriate.

Purpose : for decision

1 Summary/Purpose

RECOMMENDATIONS

APPENDIX 3

Champions

Entitlements