Winchester City Borough Council Standards Sub-Committee Meeting

RESOLVED:

          That Councillor Cutler be appointed Chairperson for the meeting.

Councillor Cutler made a personal statement that he farmed land located in the parish of Denmead but believed that this did not preclude him from considering the item.

RESOLVED:

1.       That in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

2.       That the public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business because it is likely that, if members of the public were present, there would be disclosure to them of ‘exempt information’ as defined by Section 100I and Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

Present at the sub-committee meeting was the Strategic Director & Monitoring Officer (Sharon Evans) and the council’s appointed Independent Person (Michael Cronin).  Also present was the council’s Strategic Director & Monitoring Officer at the time of the investigation and was who acting as Legal Advisor to the meeting (Lisa Kirkman). 

The Sub-Committee was referred to Report SHSC 052 and its attention was drawn to the summary of wider findings and recommendations of the Investigatory Officer concerning complaints relating to Denmead Parish Council.  These had been written by VWV LLP on appointment of the Monitoring Officer and were set out at paragraph 17 of their detailed report which was included as Appendix 1 to Report SHSC 52 (page 110 of the agenda pack).  The Sub-Committee was also referred to other broader considerations for it to consider.  These were set out at paragraph 6 (a – g) of report SHSC 052 (page 4 of the agenda pack).

The Sub-Committee asked a number of detailed questions and points of clarification of Mrs Kirkman and Mrs Evans and where appropriate, Mr Cronin also provided comment.

It was clarified that the council’s Monitoring Officer had authority within the council’s agreed standards complaint procedure to seek informal resolution of each of the matters recommended by the Investigatory Officer. Accordingly, the Sub-Committee accepted the findings regarding the various complaints and also supported the recommendations of the Investigatory Officer as set out at paragraph 17 (17.1 – 17.28) of their report.

Following discussion, it was agreed that an action plan in response to the findings of the Investigatory Officer be issued to the parish council as soon as possible.  The parish council would be required to provide a detailed response to this plan to the Monitoring Officer in the form of an improvement plan.  The Monitoring Officer would consider the appropriateness regarding the parish council’s proposed implementation of each of the various actions within specified deadlines and also with regard to the suitability and appropriateness of their undertakings.  The improvement plan shall be produced within one calendar month.

The action plan would be included as an agenda item at the Audit and Governance Committee on 2 March 2023 and the committee would also provide oversight of the parish council’s response. In addition, once the improvement plan had been produced by the parish council, it was suggested that the committee consider whether this be presented to a future meeting of the committee to update them on progress and for further opportunity for comment.

RESOLVED:

That, in respect of the complaints relating to Denmead Parish Council, the findings of the Standards Sub-Committee be as set out above and as per the detailed letter of the Monitoring Officer (as appended to the minutes)