Agenda and minutes

To elect the Chairman of Council for 2023/24.

It was proposed by Cllr G Suttle and seconded by Cllr N Lacey-Clarke that Cllr V Pothecary be elected Chairman of the Council for 2023/24.

There were no other nominations.

Decision

That Cllr V Pothecary be elected as Chairman of the Council for 2023/24.

The Chairman thanked Cllr B Goringe for his support as Vice-Chairman during the previous year. She also thanked the Democratic Services Team Leader, her Personal Assistant, and her partner. Cllr Pothecary made and signed the declaration of acceptance of office.

To elect the Vice-chairman of Council for 2023/24.

It was proposed by Cllr V Pothecary and seconded by Cllr L O’Leary that Cllr W Trite be elected Vice-Chairman for 2023/24.

It was proposed by Cllr C Sutton and seconded by Cllr J Andrews that Cllr L Fry be elected Vice-Chairman for 2023/24.

Cllr L O’Leary requested a recorded vote and in accordance with the constitution this was supported by at least 10 members. The votes are recorded in the table below.

Decision

That Cllr W Trite be elected Vice-Chairman for 2023/24. The Vice-Chairman signed the declaration of acceptance of office and thanked Council for their support.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th February 2023.

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2023 were confirmed and signed by the Chairman, subject to a minor amendment at min 52; replacing the word “reserved” with “deserved”.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct.  In making their decision councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made at the meeting.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman of Council.

The Chairman reported to Council that Cllr S Jones had served as a Councillor for Dorset residents for 50 years. She took this opportunity to thank Cllr Jones for her dedicated services.

To elect the Leader of Council for 2023/24.

It was proposed by Cllr A Parry seconded by Cllr L Beddow that Cllr S Flower be elected Leader of the Council for 2023/24.

Decision

That Cllr S Flower be elected as Leader of the Council for 2023/24.

The Leader of the Council to advise on the appointment of the Deputy Leader, Cabinet membership/Portfolio Holders and Lead Members.  

The Leader of the Council announced the following appointments:

Deputy Leader of the Council – Cllr G Suttle

Portfolio Holder(s):

Finance, Commercial and Capital Strategy – Cllr G Suttle

Assets and Property – Cllr A Parry

Corporate Development and Transformation – Cllr J Haynes

Culture and Communities – Cllr L Beddow

Economic Growth and Levelling-up – Cllr S Gibson

Highways, Travel and Environment – Cllr R Bryan

Adult Social Care, Health, and Housing – Cllr J Somper

Children, Education, Skills, and Early Help – Cllr B Quayle

Planning – Cllr D Walsh

To receive any announcements and reports from the Leader of Council and members of the Cabinet.

No announcements were reported at the meeting.

A period of 30 minutes is allocated to receive and respond to questions and statements on the business of the Council in the following order:

(a) Questions and statements from Town and Parish Councils;

(b) Questions and statements from those living or working in the Dorset Council area;

A person or organisation can ask either 2 questions, or 2 statements or 1 question and 1 statement at each meeting.  No more than 3 minutes shall be allowed for any one question or statement to be asked/read.

The full text of the question or statement must be received by 8.30am on Friday 5^th May 2023.

Details of the Council’s procedure rules can be found at:

Council Procedure Rules

There were 10 questions and statements received from members of the public and these are set out in appendix 1 to these minutes.

A period of 15 minutes is allocated to receive and respond to petitions in accordance with the council’s petitions scheme.

A period of 15 minutes is allocated to receive and respond to deputations in accordance with the council’s constitution.

The petitions scheme and procedures relating to deputations can be viewed at:

Council Procedure Rules

There were no petitions or deputations.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  The deadline for receipt of questions is 8.30am on Friday 5^th May 2023.

There were 3 Cllr questions as appended to these minutes at appendix 2.

To consider a report by the Service Manager, Democratic & Electoral Services.

An amendment to the recommendations contained within this report has been submitted by Cllr L O’Leary in advance of the meeting and has been appended to the report. 

The Leader of the Council presented a report and its final recommendations of the community governance review of parishes in the Vale of Allen group, the Winterborne Farringdon group, Chickerell and Weymouth.

On 22 October 2022, Full Council had approved the terms of reference for the community governance review, looking at the existing parish governance arrangements in the parishes and inviting representations from local councils, residents, and any other interested parties in respect of the current and future arrangements. A cross-party working group had considered all the responses received during the second period of public consultation and the final recommendations from the group were set out in appendix 1 to the report.

The Leader of the Council proposed that “the proposals set out in Appendix 1 be adopted by the Council as Final Recommendations for the purposes of the Community Governance Review that will form a Reorganisation Order taking effect on 1 April 2024.” This was seconded by Cllr M Roberts.

Cllr L O’Leary presented the following amendment to the recommendation:

“I would like to make the below recommendation as an alternative community governance review proposal. This map is amendment to a proposal myself and Cllr Luke Wakeling of Weymouth council tried to come up with as a compromise. Sadly Weymouth council did not support the proposal. Therefore I would like to propose the below plan as alternative to their recommendation and also to Dorset council plan.

The numbers for all the wards are below. The variation in electors/seat is 1400-1900 (mean 1723) Just two wards with a var over 200.

Total Seats:  25

Average electors/seat:  1723

This alternative does key things

-Cuts the number of Weymouth councillors from 29 to 25

-Keep Weymouth town council ward within the same Parliamentary boundary so no ward is stretched over two constituencies.

-Only breaks Dorset council ward boundaries twice (both times in order to keep within Parliamentary boundaries and to achieve good electoral equality and keep good community cohesion)

-Listens to the concerns of Littlemoor and Chickerell residents and delivers for them and doesn’t split communities and therefor achieves cohesion

-Gives communities such as Sutton Poyntz and Southill name recognition

-Has better electoral equality than the Dorset council option one as seen below and eliminates anomalies like Nottington ward.

Dorset council ward options numbers. There are nine wards with a variance over 130 and six with a variance over 200.

n           seats       n/seat      var         name

3619        2           1809        60          Littlemoor

4515        2           2257        508        Preston

3848        2           1924        175        Upwey and Broadwey

3513        2           1756        7             Melcombe Regis

176          1           176         -1572      Nottington

3424        2           1712  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To consider a report by the Team Leader, Democratic Services.

The Leader of the Council presented a report setting out the proposed allocation of committee seats in line with political balance rules and, in accordance with the Council’s constitution, to make appointments to committees, joint panels and boards.  The report also set out the proposed Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of ordinary committees for the forth coming year.

It was proposed by Cllr S Flower seconded by Cllr L Fry

Decision

(a)           That the allocation of committee seats in accordance with political balance rules, the appointments to ordinary committees and appointments to joint panels and boards, as nominated by the Political Group Leaders, be approved for 2023/24 as set out in Appendices 1, 2 & 3 of the report.

(b)           That authority be delegated to the Director of Legal & Democratic in consultation with the appropriate Political Group Leader to make in- year changes to committee, joint panels, and board appointments.

(c)           That Full Council appoints committee Chairmen and Vice-chairmen for the 2023/24 municipal year, as set out at Appendix 4 of the report.

Reason for the decision

To comply with the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and the Dorset Council Procedure Rules (as set out in the Constitution).

Full Council adjourned for a short comfort break at 19.52 and returned at 20.05pm.

To consider a recommendation from the Audit & Governance Committee.

The Chairman of the Audit & Governance Committee set out a recommendation from the committee proposing changes to the public participation process following a cross-party review.

Cllr R Biggs proposed the following recommendation, and this was seconded by Cllr S Flower.

“That the Procedure Rules for Public Participation be amended as follows:

(a)           That the Council accepts the first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each Full Council meeting on a first come first served basis in accordance with the current deadline for receipt of questions and statements.

(b)           That in exceptional circumstances the Chairman of Council has discretion to allow more than 8 questions.

(c)           That any questions received over the first 8 questions, the resident or organisation will be asked if they wish to receive a written response from the Portfolio Holder.

(d)           That members of the public or organisations can submit a maximum of 1 question or 1 statement at each meeting of the Full Council.

(e)           That each question or statement submitted be up to a word count of 450 and the response from the Portfolio holder be a maximum of 300 words.

(f)             That statements received by residents or organisations be published, in full, before the Full Council meeting as a supplement to the agenda and published, in full, as an appendix to the minutes but will not be read out at the Full Council meeting to allow more time for questions and responses.”

Cllr B Bawden proposed an amendment with the addition of (e) “A person who has submitted a question may ask a follow-up question in the meeting, remotely by teams, or in writing, once Dorset Council’s reply to the question has been received.” This was seconded by Cllr K Clayton.

Upon being put to the vote the amendment was LOST.

Following debate, on the original recommendation was put to the vote.

Decision

That the Procedure Rules for Public Participation be amended as follows:

(a)                    That the Council accepts the first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each Full Council meeting on a first come first served basis in accordance with the current deadline for receipt of questions and statements.

(b)                    That in exceptional circumstances the Chairman of Council has discretion to allow more than 8 questions.

(c)                    That any questions received over the first 8 questions, the resident or organisation will be asked if they wish to receive a written response from the Portfolio Holder.

(d)                    That members of the public or organisations can submit a maximum of 1 question or 1 statement at each meeting of the Full Council.

(e)                    That each question or statement submitted be up to a word count of 450 and the response from the Portfolio holder be a maximum of 300 words.

(f)                      That statements received by residents or organisations be published, in full, before the Full Council meeting as a supplement to the agenda and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To consider a recommendation from the Audit & Governance Committee.

The Chairman of the Audit & Governance Committee presented a report on the proposal to appoint 2 co-opted independent members to the Audit and Governance Committee.  These appointments would supplement the expertise of existing membership, in accordance with CIPFA guidelines and good practice.  

It was proposed by Cllr R Biggs seconded by Cllr S Cocking

Decision

(a)           That the constitution be amended to incorporate two co-opted members to the Audit & Governance Committee, in advance of the September 2023 meeting; and

(b)           That the Independent Remuneration Panel’s recommendation that an annual allowance of £2,000 should be payable per co-opted member.

Reason for the decision

To ensure that the Audit and Governance Committee had the appropriate level of technical expertise to perform its role as set out in its terms of reference.

To consider a report by the Democratic & Electoral Services Manager.

The Chief Executive presented a report to appoint Deputy Electoral Registration Officers for the effective and efficient administration of the electoral service function including implementation for Election Act 2022 responsibilities, and to agree a delegation for temporary changes to polling places.

It was proposed by Cllr S Flower seconded by Cllr C Sutton.

Decision

(a)           That the following officers be appointed as Deputy Electoral Registration Officers with Full Powers: Legal and Democratic Services, Service Manager, Democratic and Electoral Services and Team Leader, Electoral Services.

(b)           That all Electoral Services Officers be appointed as Deputy Electoral Registration Officers for the purpose of issuing temporary Voter Authority Certificates only.

(c)           That authority be delegated to the Electoral Registration Officer the designation of temporary polling places.

Reason for the decision

To expedite the issuing of temporary Voter Authority Certificates, and ensuring the effective and efficient administration of the electoral service function if the Electoral Registration Officer is unable to act. Also, to enable a designation of an alternative polling place (polling station) if the place agreed by Full Council is temporarily unavailable for use.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.

There is no scheduled exempt business.

There was no exempt business to report.