Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Robin Bastable, Paul Maxwell and Robin Pailthorpe.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (as amended 26 February 2015), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no members of the public present at the meeting.

There were no Chairman's announcements to note.

Members considered the reports within the District Executive agenda for 17 August 2021 (Informal Consultative Meeting) and raised comments as detailed below. Responses to some questions and comments were provided at Scrutiny Committee (Informal Meeting) by the Deputy Leader – except those marked by an asterisk:

Local Government Reorganisation - Structural Change Order (SCO) (Agenda item 5).

·          Recommendation part C, a member suggested that the Conservative Group should be referred to as SSDC Conservative group, and the Independents should be referred to as the SSDC Independents group.

·          Recommendation part C, members discussed the possibility of the sole Green Party member joining the SSDC Independents group in the interests of fair representation for all elected members.

·          *Para 12 – Referring to the bullet point 'number of votes for twin hatters', a member requested more detal on this.

·          *Para 12 – a member asked if the Leaders and CEO’s meetings had taken place, and if so, what are the outcomes.

·          *Para 12 – A member asked for clarity on the Scrutiny arrangements as part of this scheme of delegation. Members agreed Scrutiny will be an important part of this process.

·          *Para 12 – Members asked for more explanation on the member working group. Who would sit on this, will there be a terms of reference, how often will they meet and how will they report back.

·          *Para 14 – A member asked if substitutions would be available if the Leader or CEO’s were unable to attend decision making meetings.

·          Para 16 – One member suggested that this statement was very vague.

·          *Para 18 Risk Matrix – One member asked about the likelihood of SSDC having no impact on the Structural Change Order.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for Tuesday 31 August 2021 - as a virtual meeting using Zoom.