To approve as a correct record the minutes of General Services Committee meeting held on 3 December 2024.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of Extraordinary General Services Committee meeting held on 7 January 2025.

The public minutes of the General Services Committee held on the 3 December 2024 were approved as a correct record.

The exempt minutes of the General Services Committee held on the 3 December 2024 were approved as a correct record.

The minutes of the General Services Committee held on the 7 January 2025 were approved as a correct record.

There were no urgent items of business.

No interests were declared.

The boundary review and the work undertaken in this report preceded the government announcement that the 2025 elections and the implementation of the new ward boundaries in Thurrock as set out in the Thurrock (Electoral Changes) Order 2025 (the 2025 Order) would be postponed to 2026. The Order postponing the elections and boundary review would come into force on 4 March. This also meant that any byelections between now and May 2026 would be held on the current ward boundaries.

Councillors J Kent and Speight spoke on this item, with the following comments being made:

·       Member raised concerns on whether any cost savings were being made, how rushed it all felt and lack of communication.

·       Sought clarification on government funding for Thurrock.

·       It was noted the polling districts currently in place would still be relevant for any plans in the future.

·       Polling buildings would remain for the mayoral and all-out elections.

·       Districts and buildings were part of the poll station review being undertaken.

·       Agreed that relevant steps should be undertaken now in preparation for the 2026 elections.

RESOLVED

2.1          Approved the Polling District Scheme shown in Appendix 3 but that implementation of the scheme was subject to the commencement date of the Thurrock (Electoral Changes) Order 2025.

2.2          Noted that until the commencement date of the Thurrock (Electoral Changes) Order 2025 current ward boundaries will remain in force.

The report presented the complete draft chapters for the councillor code of conduct and arrangements for dealing with complaints received under the councillor code of conduct (which have been to Standards Committee) and completed chapters on open governance and scrutiny. The Committee were requested to consider the draft proposals and recommend them to Full Council for approval.

Councillors Speight, J Kent, Worrall, L Watson and Coxshall spoke on this item.

On the chapters of the Constitution relating to open governance, the following comments were made:

·       Members agreed the streamlining of the constitution was a good idea to

pull all the information together.

·       There was a lack of understanding on what members were entitled to have access to and agreed should be picked up as part of the member development program.

·       Member referred to paragraph 11.2.1(ii) of the report, Key Decisions, and questioned whether the number of electoral wards should be changed from two to one.

·       It was noted this was universal practice to have two wards, as this allowed for the level of significance to be noted and for those decisions over the £500,000 threshold.

·       The Chair stated the decisions being made were around culture and how those impacted the community and residents of the borough.

·       Members agreed to retain the two wards.

·       It was noted that any decisions made this evening would not affect the planned review of the scrutiny process.

·       Member noted some outdated information on the web site and members agreed information should be updated on-line following any change.

·       A discussion took place on when key decisions were added to the forward plan. It was noted there were statutory definitions defining a key decision in the constitution and that debate, discussions and advise would be sought before any key decision was added to the forward plan.

On the chapters of the Constitution relating to standards, the following comments were made:

·       Member noted there was no mention of a schedule of action on complaints and members agreed this was required to detail timescales.

·       Members were informed there were rules and timeframes set out in the current process. There were a number of reasons why some complaints had been delayed.

·       Members raised a concern on an outstanding complaint which had been in the process for 117 working days.

·       Suggestions of providing an indicative framework and introducing performance indicators so complaints could be scrutinised by the Standards Committee.

·       Chair agreed an indicative framework but not for the committee to decide on this evening. Asked the Monitoring Officer to take this action away and provide members with some draft timescales to consider.

·       Member raised concern on a complaint that been shut down by the Independent Person before the complainant had chance to respond and was unable to reopen. Suggestion made to set out the process more clearly, with complainants receiving a copy of the report detailing the conclusion and add a step that indicated all involved had sight of that.

·       Member referred to the government consultation on strengthening the standards regime  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.