Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Mr R Betton, Mr M Brereton, Mr S Collins, Mr P Dew, Miss H Fearon, Mr H Graham, Mrs B Gray, Mr M Hawkins, Mr K Hitchen, Mr C Hogg, Mr N Hughes, Lord Liddle, Dr K Lockney, Mr T Lywood, Ms C McCarron-Holmes, Mr P McSweeney, Mrs S Sanderson, Mr D Southward, Ms H Wall, Mr R Watson, Mr D Whipp, Mr S Wielkopolski, Mrs E Williamson, Mrs J Willis, Mr A Wonnacott and Mr S Young.

To disclose any disclosable pecuniary interests relating to any item on the agenda.

Members are asked to refer to the Monitoring Officer for advice in relation to the declaration of interests at meetings of the full Council.  A complete list of declarations notified to the Monitoring Officer by 5.00 pm on Monday ???  will be circulated at the meeting. If any member wishes to correct or add to the circulated list, guidance on what constitutes a disclosable pecuniary interest is set out below.

NB The following is a summary of what constitutes a disclosable pecuniary interest. Please seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

Members must disclose any disclosable pecuniary interest they have in any item on the agenda which comprises

1          Details of any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for       profit or gain.

2          Details of any payment or provision of any other financial benefit (other than from the authority) made or provided within the relevant period in respect of any expenses incurred by you in carrying out duties as a member, or towards your election expenses.  (This includes any payment or financial benefit from a trade union within the meaning of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

3          Details of any contract which is made between you (or a body in which you have a beneficial interest) and the authority

(a)       Under which goods or services are to be provided or works are to be           executed; and

            (b)       Which has not been fully discharged.

4          Details of any beneficial interest in land which is within the area of the authority. 

5          Details of any licence (alone or jointly with others) to occupy land in the area of the authority for a month or longer. 

6          Details of any tenancy where (to your knowledge)

            (a)       The landlord is the authority; and

            (b)       The tenant is a body in which you have a beneficial interest.

7          Details of any beneficial interest in securities of a body where

(a)       That body (to your knowledge) has a place of business or land in the          area of the authority; and

(b)       Either –

(i)      The total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one        hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body; or

(ii)     If that share capital of that body is of more than one class, the total nominal value of the shares of any one class in which the relevant person has a beneficial interest exceeds one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that class.

In addition, you must also disclose other non-pecuniary interests set out in the Code of Conduct where these have not already been registered.

Note

A “disclosable pecuniary interest” is an interest of a councillor or their partner (which means spouse or civil partner, a person with whom they are living as husband or wife, or a person with whom they are living as if they are civil partners).

There were no disclosures of interest made at this meeting.

To consider whether there are any items on the agenda in respect of which the press and public should be excluded during consideration of the item.

RESOLVED,     that the press and public be not excluded from any items on the agenda today.

To consider notice of motions for up to a specified period of one hour.

Dr Stephen Haraldsen to move

“This council believes that launching a legal challenge against the proposed Local Government Reform in Cumbria will be a waste of public money and time and that the council should instead focus on serving local residents by working constructively with all partners to ensure a smooth transition to the new unitary authorities.”

Dr Stephen Haraldsen moved the following motion:-

“This council believes that launching a legal challenge against the proposed Local Government Reform in Cumbria will be a waste of public money and time and that the council should instead focus on serving local residents by working constructively with all partners to ensure a smooth transition to the new unitary authorities.”

Dr Haraldsen said now was the time for the implementation of local government reform to go ahead with pace, trust and compromise, and he believed that this would be jeopardised by pursuing the judicial review.  He felt that the County Council needed to move forward to ensure the two unitary authorities were established quickly and efficiently.

Mr Lamb seconded the motion, and reserved his right to speak.

The Chair opened the motion to debate. 

At this point Mr Thornton moved an amendment to the motion, seconded by Mr Clark.

Mr Thornton was concerned at the timing of the motion and questioned the need to hold this special meeting today, given that there was another County Council meeting scheduled to take place on 7 September. 

However, Mr Thornton said that the Liberal Democrat Group would support the first part of the motion put forward by Dr Haraldsen.  He accepted that coalitions do not agree on everything, if they did then they would effectively be one party and the County Council was a joint administration between two separate and distinct political parties.

He said that the liberal democrats would not support the second half of the motion, especially the word “instead”, as he felt the use of this word implied that, whilst this Council explored the possibility of Legal action, nothing else was being undertaken and the work towards transition had paused.

This was factually incorrect and before the Leader went on annual leave he had asked the Chief Executive not only to make sure that the County Council was engaged in this process, but that it was leading it from the front.  The Chief Executive had offered to be the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) of the Joint Committee of the seven councils, which would ensure the County Council was at the heart of this process and all of the senior officers were working as a team in order to deliver a smooth transition.

In order for the Liberal Democrat Group to support this motion he outlined the proposed amendment:-

‘This council believes that launching a legal challenge against the proposed Local Government Reform in Cumbria will be a waste of public money and time, and Council welcomes the fact that we are serving local residents by working constructively with all partners and by leading the process of ensuring a smooth transition to the new unitary arrangements’.

The meeting then adjourned at 10.20am to allow the groups to consider this amendment.  The meeting reconvened at 10.35am.

Mr Clark spoke to second the amendment and reminded members that in reality often people did not get what they wanted.  He wondered how much the process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.