Agenda item

Charter Trustees considered a report of the Clerk to Charter Trustees requesting consideration of options for acknowledging Durham County Council appointed Honorary Aldermen who had sufficient connections with Durham City to attend and wear red robes at ceremonial events (for copy see file of minutes).

The Clerk advised that Durham County Council had recently appointed 8 new Honorary Aldermen of which 4 were previous Charter Trustees. The Clerk asked if Charter Trustees wished to consider if any of those newly appointed Aldermen should be recognised in the same way as the former Durham City Council Aldermen.

Whilst Charter Trustees were not able to confer the title itself, they could consider acknowledging newly appointed Honorary Aldermen if they deemed

the individuals concerned had sufficient connection via past and present

service with the old Durham City Council area. In doing so Charter Trustees

would be ensuring some continuity of recognition for those individuals and

strengthen the numbers entitled to attend future ceremonial events in support of the Mayoralty.

Councillor Wilkes explained that the former Durham City Council criteria was for 4 terms of office and understood that the County Council had a similar policy of 16 years’ service. Each of the 3 options presented could potentially serve less than 4 terms of office, which has cost implications and could result in large numbers of Honorary Aldermen at a cost to Charter Trustees.

Councillor Hopgood agreed that the length of service should be specified as 16 years representing a City ward. She referred to the Leader’s appointments to the Charter Trustees and if he were to appoint the same person on a regular basis then technically they could have 16 years on the County Council, however, not had anything to do with the City.

Councillor Blakey requested a stock check to be undertaken of existing robes. The Mayor’s PA advised that there were a large number of spare robes as very few Honorary Aldermen were attending events.

Councillor Turnbull asked for the entire process to be reviewed and a breakdown of costs be provided. He commented on Councillors who served as Charter Trustees for a number of years, live in the city and contribute to the city, yet not invited to civic occasions because they were not Honorary Aldermen. He highlighted that 3 of the 4 former Trustees listed in the report lived outside the city area. An error was noted in paragraph 8b of the report, as the former Trustee did not live in the City area.

Seconded by Councillor Ormerod, Councillor Hopgood proposed a small cross party Working Group be arranged to look at the criteria, which would then be reported back to Charter Trustees.

Councillor C Marshall asked as part of the review, that cost implication be considered as the expense may be minimal for Charter Trustees, however public perception could be negative. He added that as a Charter Trustee living outside the Charter Trust area, he would totally understand if the group were to decide not to invite him to ceremonial events and wear Aldermen robes.

The Clerk advised that the report provided a few options to consider and it was for Charter Trustees to agree the rules and set the criteria and parameters. He agreed that the cost implications be considered and recorded and asked for volunteers to sit on the Working Group.

Resolved:

i)       That a Working Group be arranged  comprising  of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Clerk to the Charter Trustees, Councillors D Bell, Freeman, Hopgood and Turnbull;

ii)      That a proposed criteria setting out parameters in recognising Durham County Council Honorary Alderman and cost implication be reported to a future meeting.