Meeting documents

County Council (DCC)
Tuesday 19 June 2007


            Meeting: County Council (County Hall, Durham - Committee Room 2 - 19/06/2007 09:30:00 AM)

                  Item: A2 Notice of Motion


         

Notice of Motion - Councilllor Nigel Martin (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Groups)

a) a meeting took place on Wednesday 6 June 2007 of the Joint Committee established in accordance with Paragraph 2 (2) of Schedule 2 to the Police Act
1996 to “appoint a member to fill a vacancy on Durham Police Authority following the resignation of Councillor N Martin (Liberal Democrat)”;

(b) despite clear legal advice from the Assistant Head of Legal Services that only the Joint Committee was authorised to fill the vacancy, the Joint Committee
referred the nomination by the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group of Councillor D Southwell to fill the vacancy to the County Council for its “endorsement”;

(c) the Acting Director of Corporate Services later confirmed that, by virtue of the said paragraph of the Police Act, the appointment of councillor members to the
Police Authority lies solely with the Joint Committee;

(d) the Acting Director of Corporate Services also confirmed that it is unnecessary for the County Council to endorse the nomination or otherwise;

(e) delaying, unnecessarily, the filling of a vacancy on the Police Authority reduces the democratic accountability of that Authority and, potentially, its
decision-making capacity;

(f) the political composition of Councillor members of the Police Authority is determined by rules of political balance calculated by the memberships of Durham
County Council and Darlington Borough Council, and that the power of nomination rests only with the relevant leadership of the political group in question
following consultation with their own group members; and

(g) attempts to over-ride such nominations by other political parties would constitute a breach of all accepted protocols and would undermine the credibility of
the Council.

This Council therefore resolves

(a) that the decision of the joint committee to refer the nomination of Councillor Southwell to a meeting of the County Council was inappropriate; and

(b) requests the Acting Director of Corporate Services to reconvene a meeting of the Joint Committee at the earliest opportunity so that the nomination of
Councillor Southwell by the Leader of the Liberal Democrat group may be dealt with expeditiously in the normal way.