Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

No apologies were received.

To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the previous meeting(s) of the Committee held on the following date(s) as a correct / correct records:

·         17^th June 2015

The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the previous meeting held on 17^th June 2015 as a correct record.

Town and Community Council members noted that there was no reference to the Standards Conference delegate nominees in the minutes.  It had been practice in the past in Powys for the County Council to include Town and Community Council representatives amongst the delegates sent from Powys.  It was requested that when delegates are chosen for the next conference the practice of not sending delegates from the Town and Community Councillors be reviewed.  It was understood that the conference this year had been a smaller event which had meant restricted nominees from each authority.  It was also understood that Town and Community Councils would receive invitations separately from the Conference organisers but this had not been done and this observation should be fed back to One Voice Wales.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were received.

To receive the report of the Solicitor to the Council.

The Sub-Committee received the report of the Solicitor to the Council. (Copy filed with signed minutes)

A.        General Standards Issues for County Councillors and Co-opted Members

A1       Code of Conduct Training

Further Code of Conduct training was arranged for the eleven Members who had yet to attend mid-term refresher training (ten who had not yet attended and a newly elected Member).  This had been held on 23^rd September 2015 and sevenMembers had attended.  Arrangements had been made for the remaining four Members to receive refresher training by means of the Members providing written responses to 3 or 4 questions considered at the refresher training sessions.  One of these Members was investigating if training dates at another authority would be available.

The Sub-Committee noted that as this related to the training of County Councillors it was not relevant for this report, and it was suggested that only training matters relating to Town and Community councillors be included in future.

B         Referral of Councillors to Public Services Ombudsman

B1.      Town and Community Councillor Referrals

The following matters have been referred to the Ombudsman:

02/15/TCC                 decided not to investigate

03/15/TCC                 decided not to investigate

04/15/TCC                 decided not to investigate

05/15/TCC                 decided not to investigate

06/15/TCC                 decided not to investigate

07/15/TCC                 investigating

08/15/TCC                 awaiting decision whether or not to investigate

C.        Dispensations

C1.      Applications - Town and Community Councillors

The following applications for dispensation have been received:

One application for dispensation was received from Community Councillor E Jones from Old Radnor Community Council.

Cllr Jones farms land adjoining a quarry, this land includes a water supply that comes from the quarry.  He attends six monthly Quarry Liaison Committee meetings as a private individual and wishes to speak at Community Council on matters related to the quarry.  The Community Council have the right to appoint two representatives to the Quarry Liaison Committee but have not taken up this opportunity.

Members were of the opinion that the Community Council could achieve the result of feedback from the Quarry Liaison Committee by way of appointing Community Councillors to attend the Liaison meeting.  These members would then have the right to speak on matters relating to the quarry at Community Council.

With regard to the application before the meeting Members concluded that Cllr Jones does have a personal, prejudicial and pecuniary interest in matters relating to the quarry however, were minded to grant a dispensation to speak but not vote on such matters for a time limited period to end when the Community Council appointed representatives to the quarry liaison committee.