Agenda and draft minutes

To elect a Chair of Council for the Civic Year 2022/23

Councillor Steve Robinson was nominated for the position of Chair of Council.

RESOLVED That Councillor Steve Robinson be elected Chair of Council for the Civic Year 2022-23.

To elect a Vice-Chair of Council for the Civic Year 2022/23

Councillors Trevor Hall  and Keith Pearson were nominated for the position of Vice-Chair of Council.

On being put to the Vote, Councillor Trevor Hall was appointed as Vice-Chair of Council with 26 votes in favour.

RESOLVED That Councillor Trevor Hall be elected Vice-Chair of Council for the Civic Year 2022-23.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Aldam, Bullingham, Crews, Pearcy, Sutton, Turner, and Smith.

To receive declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 28 April 2022.

An amended version of the minutes had been published with a correction to the results of the vote for the Appointment of Independent Persons where there were 37 votes in favour and one abstention. The hardcopies that were posted to Members contained this amendment and the website had also been updated.

Councillor Kay requested that the following was added to CL.052 ‘Councillor Kay was sorry that Members had focused on the blackboy statue and not at all on the anti-slavery arch of which we should be rightly proud’. The amendment was agreed.

Councillor Ryder requested that the full statement from Councillor Hall was included in the minutes as follows ‘Islamophobia is rampant in our society and has been for a long time, so it needs to be challenged. And that’s why we need to do it. There is a lot of prejudice against Islamophobia in this country and a lot of it I have to say has come from the Tory party as well.’ The amendment was agreed.

Councillor Pearson asked for the following to be included in the minutes, ‘Councillor Pearson believed that the cost and responsibility laid with Stroud Town Council and not the entire district’. The amendment was agreed.

To receive announcements from the Chair of Council, Leader of Council or Chief Executive.

The Chair announced that he had presented a plaque to Forest Green Rovers' on Sunday 8th May at an event at the Museum in the Park to celebrate their promotion to League One, he thanked all those who had supported the event.

The Leader, Councillor Cornell, advised that the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Joint Committee had met and the joint bid with the South Gloucestershire College was granted for the Berkeley low carbon training centre. The leader thanked Officers, the College and Nailsworth Climate Action Network Group.

To appoint the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council.

Nominations received by Democratic Services from Group Leaders will be reported to or otherwise made at the Annual Meeting.

Councillor Doina Cornell was nominated for the position of Leader of Council.

Councillor Catherine Braun was nominated for the position of Deputy Leader of Council.

RESOLVED That Councillor Doina Cornell be elected Leader of Council and that Councillor Catherine Braun be elected Deputy Leader of Council for the Civic Year 2022-23.

To confirm the membership of each committee.

In accordance with the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the allocations are as per the relevant 2021 AGM report. The 2022/23 nominations received by Democratic Services from Group Leaders will be reported to or otherwise made at the Annual Meeting.

The appointment to committees was agreed as set out below:

Audit and Standards Committee (9 Members)

Community Services and Licensing Committee (12 Members)

Development Control Committee (12 Members)

Environment Committee (13 Members)

Housing Committee (12 Members)

Strategy and Resources Committee (13 Members)

RESOLVEDThat Councillors be appointed to the Council’s committees as set out in these minutes.

To appoint the Chair and Vice-Chairs of the following committees:

a. Audit & Standards Committee

b. Community Services & Licensing Committee

c. Development Control Committee

d. Environment Committee

e. Housing Committee

Nominations received by Democratic Services from Group Leaders will be reported to or otherwise made at the Annual Meeting.

The following Councillors were nominated and voted into the positions of Chairs and Vice-Chairs on the Council’s committees in 2022-23.

RESOLVED That Councillors be appointed as Chair and Vice-Chair to the Council’s committees as set out in these minutes.

a.    To appoint one lead and one substitute Member representative for the following bodies which are led by Gloucestershire County Council:

i. Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee

ii. Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel

iii. Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee

iv. Gloucestershire Covid-19 Outbreak Engagement Board

b. To appoint three Mental Health Champions (as per the Mental Health Challenge motion resolved by Council on 26 April 2018).

c. To appoint 5 cross-party Members to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.

d. Appointments to the Standards Sub-Committee.

Nominations received by Democratic Services from Group Leaders will be reported to or otherwise made at the Annual Meeting.

Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Gloucestershire)

Councillor Helen Fenton (Lead)

Councillor Natalie Bennett (Substitute)

Police and Crime Panel (Gloucestershire)

Councillor Martin Pearcy(Lead)

Councillor Chris Brine (Substitute)

Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee

Councillor Chloe Turner (Lead)

Councillor Ashley Smith (Substitute)

Appointment of three Mental Health Champions

Councillors Victoria Gray, Natalie Bennett and Tricia Watson

Appointment of five Members to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group

Councillors Gill Oxley, Robin Layfield, Natalie Bennett, Norman Kay, Jonathan Edmunds.

Appointment of three Members, one Parish Council Representative and oneIndependent Person to the Standards Sub-Committee

Chair of Audit and Standards Committee (Councillor Nigel Studdert-Kennedy)

Vice-Chair of Audit and Standards Committee (Councillor Martin Pearcy)

Chair of Constitution Working Group (Cllr Keith Pearson)

Parish Council Representative (Muriel Bullock)

Independent Person (Phyllida Pyper)

The Gloucestershire Covid-19 Outbreak Engagement Board had been disbanded, no appointments were made.

RESOLVEDThat Councillors be appointed to other bodies as set out above.

To inform members of the feedback from the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge team, which revisited the Council between 8 and 10 March 2022.

The Leader, Councillor Cornell, and highlighted key points including:

·         A cross-party Member development group would be formed to provide training and information co-designed by Members and look at the Member Induction.

·         Encouragement to progress work on community engagement in particular with Town and Parish Councils.

·         A further report setting out the action plan would be taken to Strategy and Resources Committee on the 9 June 2022.

In response to a question from Councillor Davies regarding the speed at which payments for the Council Tax rebate had been paid the Leader advised that the Revenue and Benefits team had done their best to get the payments made as soon as possible but there had been issues with the software. She also highlighted other payments that the team had made recently and thanked them for their hard work.

Proposed by Councillor Cornell, seconded by Councillor Braun.

Councillor Braun highlighted the reference to the council having a growing national and regional profile and the development of its reputation in respect of climate change, regeneration and its proactive approach to tackling equality, diversity and inclusion and hoped that this work would be continued.

Councillor Green thanked the Peer Challenge team for the report, she was pleased to see acknowledgement of some issues and looked forward to progress being made on these areas such as Housing. She also expressed an interest in the Member Development Working Group that was due to be formed.

Councillor Haydn Jones noted that there was nothing regarding planning in the recommendations of the Peer Challenge. He stated that planning was really important to residents in the Stroud District and that work needed to be done to improve enforcement, response times and updates provided. He also stated that it should be a priority to work with the Town and Parish Councils and that the Council should be engaging and explaining.

Councillor Davies stated that it was good to have the input from the Peer Challenge and that the Council was doing good things. He also highlighted the improvements that could be made with engagement with Town and Parish Councils.

On being put to the Vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.