The Monitoring Officer submitted a report, which proposed a programme of ordinary meetings of the Council and Council Committees for the municipal year May 2017- April 2018, for Council approval:-

2017                                         2018

31-May- 17                               31-Jan-18

28-Jun-17                                 28-Feb-18

26-Jul-17                                  28-Mar-18

6-Sep-17                                  25-Apr-18  

4-Oct-17     

1-Nov-17

29-Nov-17

20-Dec-17                  

There would be no meeting of Council in August 2017, due to the summer and school holiday periods. 

As agreed by Council at its Annual Meeting in 2012, each of the above

meetings would be held on a Wednesday commencing at 3.00pm, with the exception of the meeting which will consider the Budget/Medium Term Financial Strategy(MTFS) (28 February 2018) which would start at 2.00pm.  Council’s Annual Meeting for the next municipal year would be held on 16 May 2018.

The proposed programme of Council Committee meetings at Appendix 1 also required the approval of Council.  The draft Calendar had been circulated to the Corporate Management Board, Heads of Service, and lead officers of each of the Committees, Sub-Committees and Panels etc, for comment.  Provisional appointments would be placed in the Member meetings and/or Cabinet Committee electronic calendars and expanded as necessary to all Members calendars when the schedule was approved, and as soon as the composition of all Council bodies was known.

Council was asked to note the meeting dates for Cabinet, Cabinet Committees, and the Coychurch Crematorium Joint Committee which were included in Appendix 1 for completeness.

Under the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, the Council was required to undertake a survey of the timings of all Committee meetings as soon as possible in the new term of office.  It was proposed that the survey would be carried out before the end of June 2017 and the outcomes reported back to Council in July 2017.  The timings of meetings from September 2017 onwards as shown Appendix 1 could be subject to change to reflect the outcome of this survey.

A Councillor proposed that Council commence at 4 pm and not 3 pm. The Leader explained that as in the report, Members would be surveyed before the end of June 2017 and the outcomes reported back to Council. Members commented that for some, 4 pm could still be too early and that it was important for the sake of democracy that all had the opportunity to attend and give their input. Members agreed to continue with the survey and that the outcomes be reported back as soon as possible. 

RESOLVED:             That Council:

(1)  Approved the proposed Programme of Council  Meetings set out in Paragraph 4.1 of the report.

(2)  Approved the proposed programme of meetings of Council Committees set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

(3)  Noted that a survey of meeting timings would be carried out with the Members of each Committee, Sub-Committee and other body before the end of June. The outcomes would be reported back to Council in July and could result in the timings of meetings contained in the programme of meetings being subject to change. 

Noted the dates of Cabinet, Cabinet Committees and Cabinet’s Joint Committee which were also set out in Appendix 1 to the report.