(If any) – receive.

Apologies were received from Councillor Mandy Anderson (Councillor Matthew Stanton substituting).

Members are invited to disclose any interest in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting. 

Members may still disclose any interest in any item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Committee held on 12 February 2025 (attached) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 2025 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Monitoring Officer updated that he was in discussions with the communications section regarding the elections process for Pensions Committee and would report back at the next meeting. An update on governance issues would also be brought to the next meeting.

The discussion on whether to continue with prayers and the playing of the National Anthem at meetings of full Council would not be considered by the Constitution Working Party. This would be included within a review of the Council Procedure Rules that was likely to take place within six months. It was noted that Governance Committee had not made any specific recommendation regarding these issues.

Report attached.

All Council votes at the Local Government Association (LGA) General Assembly were currently cast by the Leader. The Leader indicated however that he was happy to consider revising this and asked for proposals from Members. It was suggested that each of the four Council nominees should have one vote each with the Leader also casting the fifth allocated vote.

This proposal was agreed by 11 votes to 1 with Councillors Morgon, Ford, Mugglestone, Whitney, Chapman, Patel, Prince, Darvill, Stanton, Goode and Tyler voting in favour and Councillor Nunn voting against.

It was AGREED:

As the Council is entitled to 5 votes at the General Assembly of the Local Government Association, cast across 4 appointees from the Council, Governance Committee agrees that each individual appointed to the General Assembly by the Council shall exercise one vote, with the Leader of the Council exercising the extra vote (making two). 

It was also noted that Councillor White would replace Councillor Prince on the LGA General Assembly.

The nominations to Outside Bodies were otherwise AGREED for non-executive appointments and recommended to the Leader to be made for executive appointments, as shown in the schedules attached to these minutes.

It was AGREED that:

Where the Council’s representative (or any deputy or alternative representative where applicable) is unable to attend a particular meeting and the constitutional arrangements of the body in question so permit, that representative may authorise the Chair of the meeting to exercise a proxy vote.

Report attached.

The Head of Committee and Election Services explained that the Mayoral Handbook had previously been presented to the Committee in June 2024 and had since been reworked in light of the comments made by Members. Wording had been amended to reflect there was no maximum number of recipients for the Civic Awards.

It was planned for the new handbook to be ready for the start of the mayoral year. The handbook would be monitored throughout the year and brought back to the Committee for review in spring 2026. Feedback on the handbook had also been received from the current Mayor.

Officers would resolve minor issues re use of capital letters etc before the handbook was launched. The reference to the Civic Awards panel would be more clearly defined and the section regarding ‘unsung heroes’ would also be clarified. It was clarified that there were no significant changes from previous Mayoral operations and that the handbook simply sought to tighten up existing good practice. Mayoral events were also now declared in the Register of Member Interests.

Including the changes outlined above, the Governance APPROVED adoption of the Mayoral Handbook.

Reports attached.

As Governance Committee had oversight of Member Conduct, the Monitoring Officer had submitted his annual report on this issue. There had been a total of six formal complaints about Members in the previous year. The Monitoring Officer undertook an initial assessment which could then be reviewed by an independent person.

In only one case had the Monitoring Officer recommended that a complaint should proceed to an assessment panel but the resident concerned had indicated they did not wish to continue with the process.

The Committee NOTED the report.