Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer which informed the Committee of a vacancy arising for a Parish Council co-opted Member, following the sad death of  Councillor Terry Batson. The report also sought to revise the arrangements for appointing such representatives (for copy see file of Minutes).

At its meeting on 12 March 2022 the Committee agreed a process to formalise the arrangements for the nomination and appointment of co-opted Parish Council members, details of which were set out in the report.

The County Durham Association of Local Authorities (CDALC) had since advised that where there were more expressions of interest than vacancies, it was not feasible to ballot the whole membership. It had therefore requested that the arrangements be amended to reflect that the CDALC Executive determines the nominations in the event that there were more expressions of interest than vacancies. This was how nominations had been determined historically and was in line with CDALC’s other arrangements for choosing its representatives.

RESOLVED:

That

a)    Town Councillor Terry Batson’s service to the Committee be acknowledged, and the Committee’s condolences be recorded;

b)    the procedure for appointing co-opted Parish Councillors be amended as set out in paragraph 11 of the report;

c)     the Head of Legal and Democratic Services invite CDALC to seek expressions of interest for the vacancy of co-opted Parish Council member.