Agenda item

Notice of Motion - Constitution

Link to the Constitution - Teignbridge District Council  

 

To consider the Notice of Motion on the Constitution which was submitted by Cllr Patch to Full Council on 22 February 2021 and referred to the Procedures Committee by Executive 13 May 2021.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Sometime on or after 20th November 2020 a document purporting to be a new version of the Council’s Constitution appeared on the Council website. The version of the Constitution last adopted by the Full Council (Article 4.3 (a)(i)) states that the Full Council is responsible for “adopting and changing the articles in the Constitution or Rules of Procedure – unless otherwise stated”. Delegated powers had been given to the Monitoring Officer by Full Council in September 2019 to make ‘minor’ changes to the constitution as part of a ‘tidying-up’ exercise – at that time assurance was given in writing to Council:

 

For the avoidance of doubt and as indicated above, the existing rules will not be materially changed (i.e. will only cover changes to remove/address clear errors in law or drafting to improve clarity and understanding of the relevant provision as the Monitoring Officer considers appropriate).

(Para 3.6, Report of Constitution Working Group to Full Council, 24 Sept, 2019 – my emphasis added)

Preliminary inspection of the ‘new version’ of the Constitution (dated 20th November 2020) has revealed several apparent material changes from the last adopted version of the Constitution, in the main eroding the rights of Members of the Council and the Public – for example, with respect to:

1.     the rights of Members of this Council to present questions to Full Council (Articles 4.3.2 (f); Article 4.7.3): new/extended discretionary powers have been given to the Chairman of the Council and Managing Director, giving them, respectively, greater scope/new powers to reject questions from elected Members (compare with previous Article 4.5 (k));

2.     the rights of members of the Public to present questions to Full Council (Articles 4.3.2 (e); 4.7.1 (f)): new/extended discretionary powers have been given to the Chairman of the Council and Managing Director, giving them, respectively, greater scope/new powers to reject questions from members of the Public (compare with previous Articles 4.5 (j)(vi) and 4.5 (j)(v));

3.     the rights of Members of this Council to present Motions on Notice to Full Council(Article 4.9.3): new/extended discretionary powers have been given to the Managing Director (in consultation with the Chair of Council) allowing him to reject Motions on Notice from elected Members (compare with previous Article 4.5 (l)(iii));

4.     the remit of Overview and Scrutiny Committee 1(Article 3.6.2): the scope of what of what is covered under Work Area ‘Strategic Direction’ of the Council, and hence what might be scrutinised by this committee, has been restricted/reallocated elsewhere (compare with Resolution of Full Council on 3rd September 2020 – and as still currently recognised on the TDC website for this committee’s Remit: https://democracy.teignbridge.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=391);

5.     the powers of Overview and Scrutiny Committees (1&2) to require Senior Officers and Executive Members to attend and explain decision, actions and performance(Articles 3.5.3 (f) & (g)): these powers have been diluted (compare with previous Article 5.5 (a)(i));

6.     loss of the power of Group Leaders to veto delegated ‘minor’ changes to the Constitution that might be “to the detriment of a member of the public or a councillor ...” (Article 2B3 [sic: second 2B3] Section 6 (Schedules Only), Page 5 of 20): the Monitoring Officer has been given the delegated power to make changes “as he [sic] considers appropriate” – without the veto protections previously provided to Group Leaders with respect to what are defined as ‘minor’ changes (power was previously delegated to Democratic Services Manager – these have been duplicated for the Monitoring Officer, although without the power of veto for Group Leaders – compare with previous Article 4.3 (b) – penultimate row of table on page 15).

(In each case the Article No. in the new document is provided – for comparison with the corresponding provisions in the last Adopted version of the Constitution – i.e., the Constitution available prior to 20th November 2020).

These material changes (not an exhaustive list), insofar as they were not authorised in the powers delegated to the Monitoring Officer, represent unconstitutional changes. Indeed, powers given to the Managing Director in the ‘new version’ include proposals that were referred back to the Constitution Working Group by Full Council on 3rd September 2020 for further consideration (Minute 44 Resolution Part 4). Consequently, the following Motion is presented to Council:

 

MOTION

 

This Council resolves to:

 

A) strive to uphold the integrity of the Constitution of this Council;

 

B) reinstate the last version of the Constitution to be properly adopted by this Council – i.e., the version in place prior to the version dated 20th November 2020; in doing so, to have the previous version’s Articles/documents reinstated on the Teignbridge District Council website in place of the version dated 20th November 2020;

C) ensure that future material changes to the Constitution of this Council are made in accordance with the Constitution, and only after a full consideration and scrutiny of the extent and nature proposed changes.

 

 

Minutes:

Members discussed Cllr Patch’s Notice of Motion that had been referred to the Procedures Committee.

 

The Leader commented that Full Council on 24 September 2019 had granted the Monitoring Officer delegated power to amend the Council’s Constitution and this work had been undertaken in accordance with this resolution. 

 

Members voted on each of the recommendations separately.

 

RECOMMENDED to Full Council that:-

 

(A)      The Council strive to uphold the integrity of the Constitution of this Council;

 

(B)      (i)   The constitution as amended by the Monitoring Officer pursuant to the resolution of Full Council 24 September 2019 be reaffirmed as the Council’s working Constitution; and  

 

(ii) The Procedures Committee would undertake to consider any Members queries on the published constitution at a future meeting; and

(C)      Future changes to the constitution be brought to the Procedures Committee for onward recommendation to Council.

 

Supporting documents: