Anne Brown, Deputy Head of Legal and Governance and Monitoring Officer for Havering detailed the report to members of the Governance Committee.  The meeting of full Council on 23^rd January, 2019 referred this matter back to the Governance Committee for further consideration of the proposed revisions to the Council Procedure Rules.

The recommendations were:

(a)      That the number of ordinary meetings of Council be reduced from 7 to 6 so that the pattern of meetings be:

a.       January

b.       February (Council Tax and budget)

c.       March

d.       May (the Annual Meeting)

e.       July

f.        September

g.       November

(b)      The Leader’s statement is to take place at the annual meeting (May), without any subsequent debate.

(c)      Consideration of Council questions (to remain at 15 allocated proportionately amongst opposition groups) will be limited to 45 minutes in duration.

(d)      Consideration of motions will be limited to 75 minutes in duration (or such lesser time before the three hour meeting duration time permits).

(e)      Any motions or amendments not finished in the time available will be dealt with by vote only.

(f)       Rules of debate will be a single debate procedure in the following format (with the intermediate debate procedure being deleted):

• five minutes for a mover of a motion or an amendment or an amendment to a report

• three minutes for other speeches in any debate

Rights of reply (up to three minutes) may be exercised in the following order:

• The Leader of the Group by which any motion, recommendation or amendment was proposed or, if the mover is not a member of a Group, that Member.

• Where more than one Group or individual Member has proposed a motion or amendment, each shall be entitled to exercise a right of reply, in the order in which the motion or amendment(s) appears on the agenda.

• The Leader of the Council

(g)   Every ordinary or special meeting of Full Council shall terminate after 3 hours or no later than 10:30pm whichever is earlier) provided that Full Council may decide to adjourn the meeting to a specified date on a motion to this effect being proposed and put to the vote without debate.

(h)      If there are motions or recommendations on the agenda that have not been dealt with (or withdrawn by the mover with the agreement of members) by 10.15 p.m. they are deemed formally moved and seconded (together with any amendments).  No speeches will be allowed on these items and the vote will be taken in the usual way.

The Council Meeting in January resolved to refer back to Governance for further consideration on these recommendations.  Any amendments will be considered by Full Council in March.

Paragraphs 1.3 and 1.4 of the report detail paragraphs to assist members when tendering amendments at the Council Tax setting meeting and will allow Members to be assist through the process by the s151 Officer.

It is incumbent on the s151 Officer of the Council to ensure any amendments meet the “robust budget test” and it is hoped these added recommendations will add definition to the process. It will also allow as much time as possible for finance officers to assist and support Members.  Therefore, Members would be encouraged to submit amendments as soon as ever possible to allow this process to commence.