Minutes:
The Council had before it a Notice of Motion set out in the agenda papers standing in the names of Mr R C Lunn, Mr L C R Mallett, Mr P Denham, Mr C J Bloore, Mr P M McDonald, Mr R M Udall, Ms P Agar and Ms C M Stalker.
The motion was moved by Mr R C Lunn and seconded by Mr L C R Mallett who both spoke in favour of it.
The Council agreed to deal with the motion on the day.
Those in favour of the motion made the following comments:
· Any internal or external report that involved the allocation of public funds should be shared with members, particularly reports concerned with the Council's finances. The issue was not the commissioning of the CIPFA report but the refusal to share it as well as the cost
· It was not necessarily the numbers set out in the CIPFA report but the commentary that was important. In particular, the premise that the Chief Financial Officer did not have the resources or structural capacity to deliver the administration's plans. The report had been funded from the public purse and therefore should be available to everyone
· The transparency of the tendering process by the previous Chief Financial Officer in the commissioning the CIPFA report and the value for money of the report was queried
· The Motion was not concerned with informal officer/member discussions but where reports had been commissioned at council taxpayers' expense, these should be shared with all councillors.
Those against the motion made the following comments:
· The fundamental principles of the Cabinet system allowed the administration to consider how to develop policy outside the formal council meetings process. The danger of this Motion was that it would prevent the administration from doing this important policy development work. In reality, not many reports had been produced that had not been made public. This Motion would mean that reports would have to be shared with the public and press which could contain legal opinion or commercially sensitive information. A safety first culture would develop which would discourage more imaginative ideas
· It was queried whether the main opposition group would change their stance on increasing Council Tax based on the advice from CIPFA in their slides
· CIPFA was the single recognised chartered institute for financial services and therefore it was appropriate for the former Chief Financial Officer to commission the slides without being concerned about his formal role in that organisation
· The Leader of the Council commented that it was not possible for the Council to operate without holding informal policy discussions.
On a named vote, the motion was lost.
Those voting in favour were:
Ms P Agar, Mr C J Bloore, Mr P Denham, Ms P A Hill, Dr C Hotham, Mr M E Jenkins, Mr R C Lunn, Mr L C R Mallett, Mrs F M Oborski, Mrs M A Rayner, Ms C M Stalker, Mrs E B Tucker, Mr R M Udall, Mr T A L Wells (14)
Those voting against were:
Mr B Clayton, Mr R C Adams, Mr A T Amos, Mr T Baker-Price, Mr R W Banks, Mr R M Bennett, Mr G R Brookes, Mrs J A Brunner, Ms R L Dent, Mr N Desmond, Mrs E A Eyre, Mr S E Geraghty, Mr P Grove, Mr I D Hardiman, Mr A I Hardman, Mr P B Harrison, Mr M J Hart, Mrs A T Hingley, Mrs L C Hodgson, Dr A J Hopkins, Mr A D Kent, Mr S M Mackay, Ms K J May, Mr P Middlebrough, Mr A P Miller, Mr R J Morris, Mr J A D O'Donnell, Dr K A Pollock, Mrs J A Potter, Mr A C Roberts, Mr C Rogers, Mr J H Smith, Mr A Stafford, Mr C B Taylor, Mr R P Tomlinson, Ms R Vale, Ms S A Webb. (37)