The Monitoring Officer presented a report which sought approval for the terms of reference and size of committees, to approve the allocation of groups to committees and the political balance of the Authority, the appointment to committees, the removal of senior salary from the position of Chair of the Democratic Services Committee and the appointment of Chairs and where appropriate Vice-Chairs to committees.

            The Council was required by legislation and the provisions of Part 4 of the Rules of Procedure (Council Procedure Rules) of the Constitution, to undertake arrangements which will continue to facilitate and carry out the decision making processes of the Authority.  The recommendations of this report, if adopted, would seek to ensure that this will be successfully achieved.

            The Monitoring Officer advised that Part 3 of the Council’s Constitution entitled Responsibility for Council Functions, set out the Council’s Committees, Sub-

Committees, Panels and other bodies currently in place. 

The Monitoring Officer firstly advised Council to note that changes in existing arrangements for how the Authority discharges its licensing functions have been reviewed.  These changes were outlined for the benefit of Members in paragraph 2 of the report.

The next section of the report advised of certain changes to the roles and responsibilities of Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  This had been due to a number of service areas within the Authority being re-organised, and therefore the terms of reference of the Scrutiny Committees (where applicable) had been revised to reflect those changes.

The next part of the report dealt with changes to the terms of reference of the Audit Committee, in order to align its functions with guidance provided by CIPFA and in order to comply with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

The updated functions of committees were shown in Appendix 1 to the report, whilst the current committee structure was shown in Appendix 2 to the report.

The Monitoring Officer referred to Appendix 3 of the report that outlined the political balance of Committees, that had been modified to reflect changes mentioned above affecting the Council’s licensing functions.

The report then outlined information in respect of the allocation of Chairpersons of Overview and Scrutiny Committees to political groups that comprised the Authority, under the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011.  The formula used to calculate how Chairpersons should be allocated to these committees reflected that in Bridgend County Borough Council, Labour would be entitled to the allocation of 3 Chairperson posts, with Independent/Alliance and Independent/Annibynnwr having 1 each.

Paragraph 4.8 of the report then confirmed that Council notes that a co-opted Member was required to fill a vacancy on the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The Committee had recommended that H Daniel fill this vacancy as a representative of NAS/NUT.

The existing Committee Memberships were shown at Appendix 4 to the report.

In relation to the remuneration of chairpersons the report then proposed that after considering a report from the Independent Remuneration Panel, the senior salary paid to the Chairperson of the Democratic Services Committee be withdrawn, and the Monitoring Officer asked Members to consider such a request.

With regard to the terms of reference recommended for the Community Renewal and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee, a Member requested that provision 1 of these i.e. the consideration of the service provision, planning and management and performance of the service area for, Culture (libraries, Arts and Adult Community Learning) be reviewed after a six monthly period.  This was agreed by Members.

RESOLVED:         That Council:-

                        (1)   Approved the terms and reference and size of Committees, Sub-Committees and other bodies as set out in Appendix 1 and 2 of the report, subject to revisiting a provision of the terms of reference of the Community Renewal and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee in six months’ time.

                                    (2)   Approved the allocation of seats to political groups in accordance with the political balance rules as set out in Appendix 3 of the report.

                                    (3)   Approved the nominations to serve on each of the Committees, Panels and other bodies as shown at Appendix 4 to the report, and appoint those Councillors and other members to the relevant Committees. It was noted that the membership of Committees would be as is currently, subject to the following changes:-

                                    (4)   Approved the withdrawal of the senior salary payment for the Chairperson of the Democratic Services Committee.

                                    (5)   Received nominations and appointed the Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons of the following Committees, Panels and other bodies (as indicated) with it being noted that the Audit Committee at its first scheduled meeting will appoint a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson:                    

                                    (6)   Received the following nominations and appointed the undermentioned Chairpersons to the Overview and Scrutiny Committees:

                                    (7)     Appointed H W Daniel as a Co-opted Member to the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

                                    (8)     Make any necessary changes to the Constitution arising from the above decisions.