Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence and notification of any substitutions.

Apologies were received from Councillors Baldock, Bhadye, Boughtflower, and Gale. Councillor Beecher attended as Councillor Gale’s substitute.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2023 as a correct record.

The Chair raised that a point from the minutes regarding member appointments to charities had not been addressed on the agenda.

The Committee Manager provided the following statement:

“Please accept my apologies for the oversight regarding this item.

At the last meeting, a councillor requested that the history of member appointments to charities (or one charity in particular) be looked in to and reported on at the next meeting.

Trustee appointments to charities are set out in the governing document for the charity, the charity scheme. Some of these documents were written nearly a hundred years ago, and some have been updated more recently. These can be found on the charity’s website through the charity commission, and Committee Services usually hold a copy for each of the charities the Council appoints to.

Each of these schemes contains a paragraph which stipulates the trustees that must be appointed to the charity. Sometimes these trustees must hold a certain position (such as the vicar of a particular parish), or meet specific criteria. The charity may nominate a councillor for appointment as a trustee, but it is not obligated to do so unless such a requirement is set out in their scheme. No charity that this Council appoints to has a requirement in its scheme that a trustee must be a councillor.

Any changes to a charity’s scheme would need to be agreed by the charity and have the charity commission’s approval. The Council has no powers to require that a scheme be changed.”

The Monitoring Officer raised that at the Council meeting on 23 February 2023, it had been identified that there were no procedural rules in place regarding the appointment of trustees to charities. The Monitoring Officer suggested this would be reviewed and added to the forward plan.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

To receive any disclosures of interest from councillors in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct for members.

There were none.

To consider the nominations to outside bodies for the 2023-24 municipal year, as proposed by group leaders.

The Committee considered nominations from group leaders to outside bodies. The Council makes appointments to a number of organisations that are independent from the Council but have an impact on its service areas, and the appointments to these organisations help the Council maintain an effective partnership with them.

The Committee Manager advised the Committee that the list of nominations required amending to reflect that rather than two representatives, the Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group required one representative and one deputy. The Committee were also advised than since publication, the amendments had been made to the following nominations: Mary Bing Dong had become the sole representative for the Heathrow Community Engagement Board, Sandra Dunn had become the representative nomination and Med Buck had become the deputy nomination for South East Employers, and Sean Beatty had become the representative nomination and Mary Bing Dong had become the deputy nomination for the Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group.

The Committee noted that there were some positions that had no nominations. It was explained that the outside body would be informed of the lack of appointment and a further nomination would be sought if they required one.

The Committee resolved to agree the appointments as set out in the appendix to the report and as updated at the committee meeting.

To consider the appointment of Mr Tim Evans, Mr Alfred Friday, Ms Kaye Friday, and Mr Paul Thompson for a period of four years as requested by the Charity.

The Committee considered nominations for representative trustees to Sunbury Fuel Allotment Trust.

The Sunbury Fuel Allotment Trust makes grants to assist with the costs of fuel to individuals who are in receipt of state retirement pension and/or people with disabilities within the parish of St. Mary’s Sunbury. There were four nominative trustees to the charity: Mr Tim Evans, Mr Alfred Friday, Mrs. Kaye Friday and Mr Paul Thompson. A fifth ex-officio trustee was the vicar of the parish of St. Mary’s, who was currently Father Andrew Downes.

The Committee were advised that further information supplied by the charity about the individuals had been circulated before the meeting (attached). The Chair spoke briefly in support of the nominees.

The Committee resolved to appoint Mr Tim Evans, Mr Alfred Friday, Mrs Kaye Friday, and Mr Paul Thompson as representatives trustees to Sunbury Fuel Allotment Trust for a four year period.

To consider the Forward Plan for committee business.

The Committee considered the forward plan for future committee business.

The Chair queried if an update could be provided on Elections. The Monitoring Officer provided the following statement:

“Preparations for the Local Borough Elections began in December 2022. Polling Stations were all booked and letters were sent to staff asking for their availability. Over 223 staff were appointed as a result into various roles such as Presiding Officer, Poll Clerk, Count Assistant, Count Supervisor, and Polling Station Inspector. Therefore, around 145 polling station staff were trained and guidance issued to all count assistants along with a new training video which was very well received by staff.

iPads were used for the first time at every polling station and positive feedback was received as it made the voting process much easier. Additional training was given on the use of tablets and voter ID which was introduced for this election for the first time. Over 77,000 poll cards were posted by Royal Mail to electors across the borough and around 14,000 postal votes were issued for this election. The team worked incredibly hard over this period to ensure that all statutory deadlines were adhered to along with maintaining business as usual. The service is currently 1 FTE short and it’s hoped that recruitment for this post will be carried out shortly.

The elections took place on 4 May 2023 with all polling stations opening on time. There were 24,293 verified votes. After the total electorate of 77,255. Representing at turnout of 31.4%. Voter ID did not cause any significant issues. A total of 19 voters did not vote as they did not have the necessary ID.”

The Committee wished to place on record their thanks and gratitude to the officers for their work on the election.

The Committee queried if there had been an increase in registered postal votes from the last election held, and the Monitoring Officer agreed to provide this information to the Committee after the meeting.

The Committee resolved to note the forward plan for future committee business.

To move the exclusion of the Press/Public for the following item, in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and by the Local Government (Access to information) (Variation) Order 2006.

After consultation with the Monitoring Officer, this item was withdrawn from the agenda as the subject matter crossed the remit of more than one Committee.

This report contains exempt information within the meaning of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and by the Local Government (Access to information) (Variation) Order 2006 Paragraph 2 – information that is likely to reveal the identify of an individual.

After consultation with the Monitoring Officer, this item was withdrawn from the agenda as the subject matter crossed the remit of more than one Committee.