Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors M Topping, C Richardson and S Shaw-Wright.

A copy of the Register of Interest for each Selby District Councillor is available for inspection at www.selby.gov.uk.

Councillors should declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest in any item of business on this agenda which is not already entered in their Register of Interests.

Councillors should leave the meeting and take no part in the consideration, discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Councillors should also declare any other interests. Having made the declaration, provided the other interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest, the Councillor may stay in the meeting, speak and vote on that item of business.

If in doubt, Councillors are advised to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

There were no disclosures of interest.

a)         Nominations

To receive nominations for the election of Chairman of the Council for the 2022/2023 Municipal Year.

b)         Retiring Chairman’s ValedictoryAddress

The retiring Chairman will be invited to give his valedictory address. The retiring Chairman will be presented with a gift and Past Chairman’s Badge.

Expressions of appreciation of the work of the retiring Chairman may be made from Members at this point in the proceedings.

c)         Announcement of Chairman’sConsort

The Chairman of the Council will announce who their Consort will be for their year in office. The retiring Chairman’s Consort will be presented with a gift.

d)             Newly Elected Chairman’sAddress

The newly elected Chairman will address the meeting.

Nomination for Chairman

It was moved and seconded and agreed that Councillor I Chilvers be elected as Chairman of Selby District Council for the 2022-23 Municipal year.

RESOLVED:

To elect Councillor I Chilvers as Chairman of Selby District Council for the 2022-23 Municipal Year.

Councillor Chilvers chaired the meeting from this point.

Councillors A Lee and R Sweeting joined the meeting.

Retiring Chairman’s Valedictory Address

Councillor Duggan gave his valedictory address. On behalf of Council, Councillors M Crane and R Packham expressed their thanks to Councillor Duggan for his two years in office.

The retiring Chairman was presented with a Silver Salver, tankard to mark his term of office as Chairman of the Council.

Announcement of Chairman’s Consort

The Chairman announced that his wife, Councillor J Chilvers, would be his Consort for his year in office.

Newly Elected Chairman’s Address

The Chairman made his address.

a)           Nominations

To receive nominations for the election of Vice Chairman of the Council for the 2022-23 Municipal Year.

b)           Announcement of Vice Chairman’sConsort

The Vice Chairman of the Council will announce who their Consort will be for their year in office. 

Nomination for Vice Chairman

It was moved and seconded and agreed that Councillor M Jordan be elected as Vice Chairman of Selby District Council for the 2022-23 Municipal year.

RESOLVED:

To elect Councillor M Jordan as Vice Chairman of Selby District Council for the 2022-23 Municipal Year.

Announcement of Vice Chairman’s Consort

The Vice Chairman announced that he would have two Consorts for his year in office; his wife Mrs Sally Jordan and his daughter Ms Ellie Jordan.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 19 April 2022.

The Council considered the minutes of the meeting held on 19 April 2022.

Two amendments to minute item 68 – Reports from the Executive were suggested. Firstly, that under the update from the Deputy Leader and Lead Executive Member for Place Shaping, that clarification should be made that the new Head of Development Management was an interim position. The amended wording would therefore be as follows:

‘He thanked the Development Management Team for their work and gave details of the new interim Head of Development Management.’

Secondly, it was noted that the attendance details for the meeting mistakenly omitted Councillor G Ashton, who had been present. Councillor Ashton would be added to the amended version.

Other matters were raised under the item relating to the administration of the energy payments scheme, in particular contact with vulnerable residents. Members requested they be supplied with figures of the number of residents without direct debits that have been contacted by the Council, preferably by Ward. The Executive Member for Finance and Resources confirmed that he would speak to Officers to find out if such information could be provided.  

The two amendments were proposed, seconded and a vote taken.

RESOLVED:

To approve the minutes of the Council meeting held on Tuesday 19 April 2022 for signing by the Chairman, subject to the amendments detailed above.

The Chairman or the Chief Executive will deal with any communications which need to be reported to the Council.

The Chairman announced that the charities he would be raising money in his year in office would be Yorkshire Cancer Research and Long Covid Kids.

The Leader suggested that after the meeting Members gather together for a photograph as it was the last Annual Meeting of Selby District Council.

To receive a report from the Leader of the Council setting out information regarding the discharge of executive functions for the year ahead.

The Leader of the Council presented the report which informed Council of the way in which executive functions were to be discharged in the forthcoming year.

The Leader confirmed that there we to be no changes to the Executive Member portfolios for the 2022-23 year.

Members noted that for the 2022-23 year there would be new checks in place if the Council spent above a certain amount or was to dispose of large tracts of land; agreement of North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) would be required.

The Leader informed Council that he had recently met with the Leader of NYCC and no issues with the Council’s spending plans had been identified.

To receive and note the report was proposed, seconded and a vote taken.

RESOLVED:

To receive and note the Leader’s Report to Council on the discharge of Executive Functions.

REASON FOR DECISION:

To meet the obligations set out in the Executive Procedure Rules within the Council’s constitution.

To note the changes to the membership of political groups on the Council and the subsequent recalculation of political proportionality, and approve the group nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees as outlined at Appendix A for the 2022-23 municipal year.

Appendix A to follow.

The Chief Executive explained to Members that following recent changes in group membership on the Council, political proportionality had required recalculation by Officers. These changes would subsequently alter the number of places on the Council’s committees for the 2022-23 municipal year. The Council was asked to note the changes to political groups and subsequent recalculation of political proportionality, and to approve the group nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees for 2022-23.

As a result of the changes to groups, membership of the Council was now as follows:

Conservative: 17

Labour: 9

Independent Group: 3

Unaligned Members: 2 (ungrouped)

The amended group membership required the number of committee places to be re-evaluated to satisfy Section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, which placed a duty on local authorities to allocate seats on Ordinary Committees of the Council between the political groups, in accordance with the following principles:

a)     That not all the seats on the body to which appointments are being made are allocated to the same political group;

b)     That the majority of seats on each committee are allocated to a particular political group if the number of persons belonging to that group is a majority of the authority’s membership;

c)     That subject to (a) and (b), when allocating seats to a political group, the total number of their seats across all the ordinary committees of the Council, must reflect their proportion of the authority’s membership; and

d)     Subject to (a) to (c), that the number of seats on each committee is as far as possible in proportion to the group’s membership of the authority.

To accurately reflect these requirements and the political balance of the Council, Officers had altered the number of committee places available to as follows:

Planning Committee: 9 (no change)

Licensing Committee: 11 (no change)

Scrutiny Committee: 7 (reduction in 1 place)

Policy Review Committee: 7 (reduction by 1 place)

Audit and Governance Committee: 7 (reduction by 1 place)

Nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees for the 2022-23 municipal year were given in full by Members at the meeting and noted by Officers. These appointments were proposed, seconded and a vote taken.

RESOLVED:

1.         To note the changes to the membership of political groups on the Council and the subsequent recalculation of political proportionality on the Council’s Committees; and

2.         to approve the group nominations for the appointment of Councillors to Committees for the 2022-23 municipal year, as set out below:

Executive (no change)

Planning Committee (9 places)

Licensing Committee (11 places)

To make the Council’s appointments to outside bodies for the 2022-23 municipal year, and authorise those appointed to act on behalf of the Council in accordance with the legal and constitutional requirements of both the Council and the outside body.

The Leader of the Council presented the report which sought approval of the Council’s proposed representatives for 2022-23 on Outside Bodies.

It was noted that there were two vacancies on the Outside Bodies. The vacancy on the National Association of Councillors (National and Northern Branch) and would be filled by Councillor G Ashton. 

The second vacancy was on the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). There were no proposals to fill the CAB vacancy for 2022-23.

RESOLVED:

i)             To approve the appointments to outside bodies for the 2022/23 municipal year as outlined at Appendix A. 

ii)            To appoint Councillor G Ashton as the Council’s representative on the National Association of Councillors (National and Northern Branch).

iii)          To authorise those appointed to act on behalf of the Council in accordance with the legal and constitutional requirements of both the Council and the outside body.

REASON FOR DECISION:

To ensure the Council is represented on Outside Bodies as necessary in 2022-23.