Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Mike Parsons and Councillors Nils Christiansen, Angela Goodwin, Liz Hogger, Sheila Kirkland, Julia McShane, Matt Sarti, and Pauline Searle and from Honorary Aldermen Mrs C F Cobley, Mrs C F P Griffin, J Marks, B Parke and L Strudwick.

To receive and note any disclosable pecuniary interests from councillors. In accordance with the revised local Code of Conduct, a councillor is required to disclose at the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) that they may have in respect of any matter for consideration on this agenda.  Any councillor with a DPI must not participate in any discussion or vote regarding that matter and they must also withdraw from the meeting immediately before consideration of the matter.

If that DPI has not been registered, the councillor must notify the Monitoring Officer of the details of the DPI within 28 days of the date of the meeting.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the Selection meeting of the Council held on 9 May and the extraordinary meeting held on 16 May 2017.

The Council confirmed, as a correct record, the minutes of the Selection Council Meeting held on 9 May 2017 and the extraordinary Council meeting held on 16 May 2017. The Mayor signed the minutes.

To receive any communications or announcements from the Mayor.

Mayor’s Charities

The Mayor informed councillors of a number of events planned in his mayoral year to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Mayor’s Distress Fund, including:

·        Walkfest - Monday 4 September 2017 (Stoke Park)

·        Walkfest- Tuesday 19 September 2017 (Lakeside Nature Reserve, Ash Vale)

·        “Fright Night!”- Sunday29 October 2017 (The Guildhall)

·        Wine Tasting - Thursday 30 November 2017 (The Guildhall)

·        BHF Santa Run - Saturday 2 December2017 (Stoke Park)

·        Musical extravaganza - Sunday 25 February 2018 (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre)  

·       The Mayor’s Charity Ball - Saturday 21 April 2018(Guildford Harbour Hotel)

To receive any communications or announcements from the Leader of the Council.

Changes to the Executive

The Leader announced the following changes to the Executive:

(1)   Changes to existing Lead Councillors’ portfolio titles, which are now as follows:

·        Councillor Michael Illman - Lead Councillor for Finance and Asset Management

·        Councillor Geoff Davis - Lead Councillor for Special Projects and Social Enterprise

(2)   A number of changes to individual lead councillor portfolio responsibilities, details of which had been circulated to councillors before the meeting.

To receive questions or statements from the public.

No questions or requests to speak had been received from the public.

To hear questions (if any) from councillors of which due notice has been given.

There were no questions, on notice, from councillors.

Following the formal retirement of His Honour Judge Christopher Critchlow DL as a Circuit Judge (and Resident Judge at Guildford Crown Court) on 9 July 2016, the Council was requested to consider the appointment of His Honour Robert Fraser MVO, who was Judge Critchlow’s successor as Resident Judge, as the Honorary Recorder for the Borough of Guildford.

Upon the motion of The Mayor, Councillor Nigel Manning, seconded by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Paul Spooner, the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)     That His Honour Judge Robert Fraser MVO, Resident Judge at Guildford Crown Court, be appointed as the Honorary Recorder for the Borough of Guildford, with such appointment taking effect immediately.

(2)         That the Council places on record its appreciation for the service of His Honour Judge Christopher Critchlow DL as the Honorary Recorder from October 2010 to date.

Reason for Decision:

To maintain the historic appointment of an Honorary Recorder for the Borough.

The Council considered the Treasury Management Annual Report for 2016-17. The treasury management function involved the control and management of all the Council’s cash, regardless of its source, including investments and borrowing.  The Council’s cash balances had built up over a number of years, and reflected a strong balance sheet, with considerable revenue and capital reserves.  Officers carried out this function within the parameters set by the Council each year in the treasury management strategy statement.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) treasury management Code of Practice and the CIPFA Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities required the Council to set Prudential and Treasury Indicators.  CIPFA also required an annual report on treasury management activity and compliance with Prudential Indicators.

The objectives of the Prudential Code, and the indicators calculated in accordance with it, were to provide a framework for local authority capital finance that would ensure:

·        capital expenditure plans were affordable

·        all external borrowing was within prudent and sustainable levels

·        treasury management decisions were taken in accordance with professional good practice and

·        in taking the above decisions, the Council was accountable by providing a clear transparent framework.

The annual report confirmed that the Council complied with its Prudential Indicators (except the upper limit of variable rate investments due to having higher investment balances than expected when setting the indicator), treasury management policy statement and treasury management practices for 2016-17, .

The report summarised the Council’s treasury management performance over the past year, compared to estimate and discussed the factors affecting this performance.  It also contained detailed information on the return on investments and interest paid on external debt.

Upon the motion of the Lead Councillor for Finance and Asset Management, Councillor Michael Illman, seconded by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Paul Spooner, the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the Treasury Management Annual Report for 2016-17 be noted.

(2)         That the actual prudential indicators reported for 2016-17, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Council, be approved.

(3)         That the changes to the 2017-18 investment policy, as detailed in section 13 of the report, be approved.

Reasons for Decision:

·        To comply with the Council’s treasury management policy statement, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Code of Practice on treasury management and the CIPFA Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities.

·        To allow the Council to further diversify its investment portfolio.

The Council considered a report which outlined the work undertaken by overview and scrutiny during the past year and, within Appendix 1 to the report, its future work programme as thus far developed. 

Decisions taken under the ‘urgency’ provisions and the use of ‘call-in’ were detailed within the report.  In 2016-17, two decisions were taken under the urgency provisions of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules, and there were no call-ins.

The report had also been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 11 July 2017, and the Committee had commended it to Council.

Upon the motion of Councillor Caroline Reeves, seconded by Councillor Adrian Chandler,the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)     That thereport be commended as the annual report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2016-17.

(2)     That no changes be made to the current rules relating to call in or urgency provisions.

Reasons for Decision:

·        Article 8.2 (d) of the Constitution required the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to report annually to the full Council on its work undertaken during the year, its future work programme, and amended working methods if appropriate.

·        Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 17(i), required the operation of the provisions relating to call-in and urgency to be monitored annually and reported to Council with proposals for review if necessary.

The Council was reminded that, following a review by scrutiny, the Council had introduced revised governance arrangements in January 2016.  These hybrid arrangements included an altered role for a new, single Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC), and the addition of two Executive Advisory Boards (EABs) to advise and make recommendations to the Leader and Executive.

The Council had also agreed to review the operation of these arrangements after twelve months. As part of this process, a seminar was held on 7 March 2017 to which all councillors were invited to review the new governance arrangements and put forward suggestions for improvements. The proposals had been considered separately by the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee (15 June 2017), the Borough EAB (10 July 2017), the OSC (11 July 2017), and the Society EAB (13 July 2017).  

The Council considered a report on the outcome of the twelve-month review, which included details of the various recommendations from each of the committees and boards referred to above.

Upon the motion of the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Matt Furniss, seconded by Councillor Caroline Reeves, the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the Council continues the public webcasting of meetings of the Executive Advisory Boards.

(2)         That six-monthly meetings between all members of the Executive and the EAB and O&S Committee chairmen and vice-chairmen (together with one representative from the Corporate Management Team) be established to discuss topic areas for future work programmes and to discuss how the EABs and O&S Committee could make a more effective contribution to the decision-making process.

(3)         That, in order to improve the arrangements for topic selection and agenda planning, the Executive/CMT be requested to provide suggestions for topic areas for EABs drawn from the (revised) Corporate Plan Action Plan for consideration at future work programme meetings and to have a CMT (as well as Executive) representative attend those meetings.

(4)         That the approach to development of the O&S Committee work programme be broadened, by amending O&S Procedure Rules to introduce a more flexible approach to topic selection through replacing the topic selection flow chart in O&S Procedure Rules with the PAPER tool.

(5)         That, in addition to raising questions at meetings, O&S Committee members should have an opportunity for putting written questions to lead councillors attending O&S Committee meetings in advance so that written answers may be prepared.

(6)         That lead councillors should normally present matters (with officer support) for discussion at EAB meetings and engage actively in a dialogue with the EABs regarding those matters, and that the terms of reference of the EABs be amended accordingly.

(7)         That EABs be encouraged to set up task groups to research and review areas for policy development, subject to:

(a)     consideration of implications for staff resources, and

(b)     to the relevant lead councillors attending meetings of such task groups in an ex officio capacity as appropriate.

(8)         That more proactive measures for public engagement in respect of the work of the O  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO39

Councillors were reminded that, at its meeting on 11 April 2017, the Council had considered the interim report of the External Organisations Working Group, and had approved a number of recommendations, which had sought to improve the process of appointing councillors to external organisations. These included the introduction of a person profile to be completed by external organisations to ensure that the appointment is a suitable match to the requirements of the organisation and the capacity of the individual councillor in terms of skills, experience and time commitment. Since then, the Working Group had applied the new processes to undertake a review of councillor appointments to individual external organisations.

The Council now considered a report setting out the final recommendations of the Working Group, which included details of:

·        those external organisations where existing appointments should continue as they complied with the assessment criteria approved by the Council on 11 April 2017

·        possible new appointments that the Council might wish to consider, and

·        those external organisations where formal appointments should discontinue as it was not felt that they complied with the assessment criteria

The report had been considered by the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee at its meeting held on 15 June 2017.  The Committee had supported the working group’s final recommendations and had asked the Democratic Services Manager to send copies of all the person profile forms completed by the various external organisations to all councillors so that they could discuss with group leaders their suitability for the roles in terms of relevant skills and experience. Councillors nominated by their groups for appointment to an external organisation were requested to complete and submit to the Democratic Services Manager the relevant person profile forms, with details of their relevant skills and experience.

Details of nominations received were set out in the Order Paper.  Councillors noted that all the appointments to those external organisations which the Council was recommended to continue, together with the various new appointments, were uncontested.  These appointments would therefore be determined formally by the Democratic Services Manager in accordance with the delegated authority agreed by the Council on 11 April 2017, upon receipt of all the relevant councillor profile forms from the nominees and deputy nominees.

Upon the motion of the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Matt Furniss, seconded by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Paul Spooner, the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the Council agrees to continue the appointment of councillors to the external organisations listed in Column 1 and Column 2 below:

The Council considered a report on the work and strategic priorities of the Safer Guildford Partnership, including the Safer Guildford Partnership Plan 2017-2020, which was appended to the report and which was recommended for adoption by the  Council.

The Safer Guildford Partnership was required to carry out an annual partnership strategic assessment, the purpose of which was to assist in producing the priorities for the annual three-year rolling partnership plan.  The data, which formed the basis of this analysis, was drawn from a variety of sources and partner agencies across Guildford and Surrey.

The Partnership’s priorities were based on key policy areas and the Surrey County Council strategic assessment, which drew together key data sets and combined these with the knowledge and experience of local partners. In summary, these were:

·         To focus on threat, harm, risk and vulnerability, including

o    serious and organised crime

o    child sexual exploitation

o    modern day slavery

o    domestic abuse

o    threat of radicalisation

o    cyber related crime

o    supporting vulnerable victims

·         To identify and tackle anti-social behaviour hotspot locations and perpetrators

·         To reduce re-offending

·         To promote reassurance to the public to help make communities stronger

These priorities were included in the proposed new Safer Guildford Partnership Plan 2017-2020, which had been approved by the Executive of the Safer Guildford Partnership, and recommended for adoption by the Council’s Executive.

A review of the Safer Guildford Partnership had recently been completed, which sought to ensure that:

·         current ways of working continued to be effective;

·         the partnership was fit for purpose and using evidence to inform its activities

·         the membership was appropriate to deliver against its priorities

·         the partnership was responding to changing national and local priorities

Arising from the review, a number of governance and reporting changes within the Partnership had been introduced, including:

·         new members to address gaps in partner representation, including   representatives of mental health and probation;

·         a revised delivery structure;

·         new terms of reference, meeting schedule, agenda structure and performance management arrangements;

·         the introduction of an annual review forum to maintain the effectiveness of the Partnership; and

·         through a partnership development event, looking back at what had gone well and learning from what may not have.

The ambition of the Safer Guildford Partnership was to be intelligence led and use resources smartly to deliver its community safety plan.  This would ensure effective performance and the delivery of tangible outcomes in the right place at the right time.

To support this approach, the Partnership had agreed to the creation of a Partnership Community Safety Analyst. This new role would produce a local strategic assessment based on partnership intelligence and data, drive the work, and focus resources of the partnership. The role would also develop and implement a new performance management framework to enable the partnership to be accountable and improve and provide evidence of its effectiveness. The role would be a fixed term part-time contract for one year initially and the grading was subject to job evaluation. The post would  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO41

The Council was informed that, on 28 June 2017, the Employment Committee had conducted interviews for the appointment of a Deputy Managing Director on a two-year fixed-term contract.  Candidates were limited to current Directors with at least one year’s experience as a Director at the Council. 

Following the interviews, the Employment Committee had recommended that Steve White, Director of Resources, be appointed Deputy Managing Director.

As the post of Deputy Managing Director was a ‘non statutory chief officer’ under the terms of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001 (as amended), it was possible to delegate responsibility for discharging the function of appointment of an officer as Deputy Managing Director to a committee of the Council, provided that at least one member of the Executive was a member of any such committee.  Accordingly, delegated authority was sought for the Employment Committee to make such appointments in the future.  This would require appropriate amendments to be made to that Committee’s terms of reference and Officer Employment Procedure Rules (OEPRs).

Upon the motion of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Paul Spooner, seconded by the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Matt Furniss, the Council

RESOLVED:  

(1)     That, subject to no material or well-founded objection being made by the Leader on behalf of the Executive, Steve White, Director of Resources, be appointed as Deputy Managing Director for a fixed term of two years.

(2)     That the Employment Committee be authorised to appoint to the post of Deputy Managing Director in the future and that the Committee’s terms of reference and Officer Employment Procedure Rules be amended accordingly.

Reasons for Decision:

·        To appoint a Deputy Managing Director

·        To ensure that recruitment to the post of Deputy Managing Director is undertaken as expeditiously as possible in future

To receive the attached minutes of the meetings of the Executive held on 16 May, 23 May, and 27 June 2017.

The Council received and noted the minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 16 May, 23 May, and 27 June 2017. 

To order the Common Seal to be affixed to any documents to give effect to any of the decisions taken by the Council at this meeting.

The Council

RESOLVED: That the Common Seal of the Council be affixed to any documents to give effect to any decisions taken by the Council at this meeting.