Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Hall, Leeds, LS1 1UR

Contact: Harriet Speight  Email: harriet.speight@leeds.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

22.

Appeals Against Refusal of Inspection of Documents

To consider any appeals in accordance with Procedure Rule 15,2 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules. (in the event of an Appeal the press and public will be excluded)

 

(*In accordance with Procedure Rule 15.2, written notice of an appeal must be received by the Head of Governance Services at least 24 hours before the meeting.)

Minutes:

There were no appeals against refusal of inspection of documents.

 

 

23.

Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

1  To highlight reports or appendices which officers have identified as containing exempt information, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

 

2  To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in respect of the above information.

 

3  If so, to formally pass the following resolution:-

 

  RESOLVED – That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information, as follows:-

Minutes:

There were no resolutions to exclude the public.

 

 

24.

Late Items

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration

 

(The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes)

Minutes:

There were no late items submitted to the agenda for consideration.

 

 

25.

Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 and paragraphs 13-16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct. 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

 

26.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors D Cohen and K Maqsood, with Councillor G Harper in attendance as substitute.

 

 

27.

Minutes - 22 November 2018 pdf icon PDF 220 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 22nd November 2018.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 22nd November 2018 were approved as a correct record.

 

 

28.

Local Authority Appointments to Outside Bodies pdf icon PDF 242 KB

To consider the report of the City Solicitor providing an update on the current position regarding Member appointments to outside bodies and provides an opportunity to confirm Member nominations to remaining vacancies or alter existing appointments.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The City Solicitor submitted a report providing an update on the current position regarding Member appointments to outside bodies, along with an opportunity to confirm Member nominations to remaining vacancies or alter existing appointments.

 

The following were in attendance:

 

-  Kevin Tomkinson, Principal Governance Officer

-  Helen Gray, Senior Governance and Scrutiny Officer

 

Members discussed a number of matters, including:

 

·  Members requested some changes to the spreadsheet at Appendix 1. This included the introduction of a short description of each outside body, along with a filtering option to allow Members to view internal and external appointments separately.

·  Members sought clarity as to whether nominations of Honorary Aldermen could be made to outside body appointments. Members heard that this was possible, however had not received a large amount of uptake from either outside bodies or Honorary Aldermen.

·  Members queried as to whether Members attendance to outside body meetings was recorded, and were informed that the Governance and Scrutiny Support Team simply manage the appointments and therefore do not request information from the outside bodies regarding Members attendance. However, Outside Bodies who have concerns about a Member’s contribution have historically contacted the team to let them know and seek a replacement appointment.

·  There was some discussion around the approach to unfilled appointments, particularly when they have been vacant for some time. The Chair felt that there needed to be further discussion on this matter at a future meeting.

 

RESOLVED –

 

a)  That the current position in relation to elected Member appointments to outside bodies detailed in Appendix 1 be noted.

b)  That the appointment process for the Yeadon Town Hall Community Interest Company (CIC) be agreed as a Community Committee decision.

c)  That the following appointments be confirmed:

Leeds Culture Trust Board- Councillor J Blake and Councillor D Cohen

d)  That the change of appointments since the last meeting of the Committee be noted.

 

Councillors J Illingworth and B Anderson arrived at the meeting at 10:40am during discussion of this item. Councillor J Lewis left the meeting at 11:05am during discussion of this item.

 

 

29.

Progressing the Council's long-term ambition to move to paper free distribution of Committee agendas pdf icon PDF 336 KB

To consider the report of the City Solicitor presenting an update to Member Management Committee following the report to Committee in November 2018 looking at options to reduce the cost of printed agenda distribution and the associated environmental impact.

Minutes:

The City Solicitor submitted a report presenting an update to Member Management Committee following the report to Committee in November 2018 looking at options to reduce the cost of printed agenda distribution and the associated environmental impact.

 

Kevin Tomkinson, Principal Governance Officer, was in attendance and introduced the report, highlighting the progress made with the paper-free agenda since the previous meeting.

 

Members discussed a number of matters, including:

 

·  Members sought an update on the use of the Modern.Gov app on a computer, to allow Members to annotate published agendas and minutes for Committee meetings. It was confirmed that the Modern.Gov app would be available following the roll-out to Members of the Windows 10 upgrade.

·  An issue reported from the Scrutiny Boards who had trailed a paper-free approach was the occasional difference in page numbers between paper copies and electronic versions of reports.

·  There were some queries around the ability to access exempt or confidential information contained in agenda packs, which was not currently possible through the Modern.Gov app. Members heard that there was an additional app that would allow for this, however there would be a cost to this.

 

RESOLVED –

 

a)  That progress made to date in reducing the amount of paper agendas produced by the authority in line with the recommendations made by this Committee in November 2018, be noted.

b)  That all Members be contacted to request their preference in regards electronic or paper agenda packs, for all Committees, and for their preference to be actioned for all future Committees.

 

 

30.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

The Chair informed Members of some discussions that had taken place outside of the meeting around the criteria for the appointment of Honorary Aldermen. The Chair informed the Committee that she felt that ‘time of service’ would be an appropriate measure, Members broadly supported the suggestion that a minimum of 8 years would be an appropriate length of service, however felt that the issue needed to be considered in further detail at a future meeting.

 

The meeting ended at 11:35am.