Meeting: County Council (County Hall, Durham - Council Chamber - 17/03/2009 10:00:00 AM)
Item: A4 New Constitution
Background
1 A new Constitution is required to enable the County Council to fulfil its unitary responsibilities with effect from 1 April 2009.
2 The document attached has been developed through the all party Constitution Working Group and has been the subject of reports both to Cabinet and to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.
3 Members will note that the Members’ Allowances Scheme reproduced at Part 6 of the Constitution is under revision pending a report from the Independent Remuneration Panel. In the interim, it is proposed that authority be delegated to the Corporate Director, Resources to add to the list of outside bodies set out in Appendix D to the Scheme, in consultation with the Leader, to take account of the additional bodies to which the Council will appoint as a result of Local Government Reorganisation.
Recommendations
1 The Council is recommended to approve the new Constitution attached to this report in order that preparations can commence to populate the governance arrangements in readiness for vesting day on 1 April 2009.
2 The Council is also recommended:
(a) To authorise me to make changes to the Constitution from time to time between formal reviews in order to reflect decisions of the Council or a Council body, or to comply with legislative requirements or to correct inaccuracies and
(b) To authorise the Corporate Director, Resources to add to the List of Outside Bodies in Appendix D to the Members’ Allowances Scheme in consultation with the Leader pending the review of the Scheme following the report of the Independent Remuneration Panel.
Please refer to the attached PDF for the Full Constitution. Please note this is a 200 page document.
Attachments