Agenda item

The Council considered a report of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services which sought to agree the appointments process of Members to Joint and Other Bodies (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Leader of the Council referred to Recommendation (c) and informed Council it was not proposed to appoint any additional Trustees to the Charter Trust as referred to in Paragraph 4 of Appendix4.  Referring to recommendation (e) the Leader Moved and the Deputy Leader Seconded that Councillor A Watson be nominated to serve on the Joint Audit Committee, and at recommendation (g) the Leader Moved and the Deputy Leader Seconded that Councillor S Zair be nominated to the believe Housing Group Board.

Resolved:

That

(a)         the allocation of seats on the County Durham Fire and Rescue Authority as detailed in Appendix 2 be agreed;

(b)         the previous allocation of seats on Business Durham Advisory Board as set out in Appendix 3 and the intention of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services to bring a report, following consultation with Group Leaders, to a future meeting of the County Council regarding allocation of seats in the future be noted;

(c)          the allocation of seats on the Charter Trust as detailed in Appendix 4 be agreed and it was agreed not to appoint the 3 additional Trustees as set out in Paragraph 4 of Appendix 4.

(d)         the allocation of seats on the Police and Crime Panel as detailed in Appendix 5 be agreed.

(e)         Councillor A Watson be appointed for the ensuing year to serve on the Joint Audit Committee to assist the Police, Crime and Victims Commissioner, and Chief Constable, noting the nomination would be subject to approval of the Police, Crime and Victims Commissioner.

(f)           the positions on the North East Combined Authority, and the North East Combined Authority and North of Tyne Combined Authority Joint Transport Committee, and authorise the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, in consultation with the appropriate Group Leader(s) to make appointments once the specifics of the determination of allocation to political groupings are advised to the council by the NECA secretariat be noted.

(g)         Councillor S Zair be nominated to the Believe Housing Group Board (formerly County Durham Housing Group Board).

(h)         the Head of Legal and Democratic Services be authorised, in consultation with the appropriate Group Leader(s), to make appointments to the other outside bodies to which the Council are invited to nominate, in accordance with the following criteria:-

(i)           identify those organisations whose purpose is aligned to a specific Cabinet Portfolio, and nominate Members accordingly.

(ii)          identify local outside bodies from each electoral division and allocate those to local members. If there are more seats on an outside body than local members then the political balance would be applied. For those local bodies which are strategic in nature representation by a specific Cabinet Portfolio would be appropriate.

If a consensus on the allocation of seats to Members within the electoral division could not be reached, should the division be represented by Members from different parties and agreement could not be reached, the party with the largest proportion of seats on the Council would be allocated the seat.

(iii)     the bodies which are not local to a particular electoral division, for example, those with a County or Regional remit, appointments be made in accordance with the overall political proportionality of the Council, except in the case of Housing Associations and bodies providing services in one particular locality, in such circumstances the membership would be from that locality. 

(i)           the Head of Legal and Democratic Services be authorised, in consultation with the appropriate Group Leader(s), to make any changes to memberships of the main outside bodies/ joint bodies approved by Council, which may become necessary during the course of 2021/22.