Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Monitoring Officer.

1.    Establish the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee with the Terms of Reference in Appendix 1 to the report presented to the Council.

2.    Agree that the powers of local Scrutiny Committees provided for under The Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2022 shall be retained. 

3.    Agree the political balance of Cyngor Gwynedd’s nominees to the joint overview and scrutiny committee (JOSC) will reflect the membership of Cyngor Gwynedd rather than the membership of all North Wales councils in aggregate.

4.    Agree that the secretariat for the JOSC will be provided by the CJC in accordance with the Terms of Reference.

The Monitoring Officer presented a report:-

·         noting that statutory guidance and existing practice pointed towards the six councils in North Wales establishing a joint overview scrutiny model so that there was a single dedicated body which was immersed in the work of the Corporate Joint Committee (CJC);

·         ⁠listing a series of recommendations that provided for scrutiny arrangements for the Joint Committee.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and make observations.

A member expressed dissatisfaction that appointing the members of the Joint Committee based on the political balance of the individual councils excluded some smaller groups across North Wales from reaching the threshold. It was also suggested that having a Joint Committee of 18 members (namely three members from each council, rather than two as proposed) would give smaller groups a better chance of having a seat on the Joint Committee.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That this concern would be conveyed.

·         The door had not closed, and it would be possible to revise or further develop the model after some experience of running these arrangements.

In response to questions from members, it was explained that should the recommendations in this report be adopted, Cyngor Gwynedd's seat allocation on the Joint Committee would be adopted by the full Council in May as part of its annual review of the Council's political balance. Looking at the numbers and the political split, and without prejudicing any decision, it appeared at present that there would be 1 seat for the Plaid Cymru Group and 1 seat for the Independent Group.

The Leader noted that although she agreed with many of the points, the procedure of the CJC, which meant regionalising from Anglesey to Wrexham, was not a democratic method of making decisions.  However, as this procedure had been forced on us, it was important to ensure a way of scrutinising the work of the CJC and holding it to account.

RESOLVED

1.         To establish the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee with the Terms of Reference in Appendix 1 to the report presented to the Council.

2.         To agree that the powers of local Scrutiny Committees provided for under The Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2022 shall be retained. 

3.         To agree that the political balance of Cyngor Gwynedd’s nominees to the joint overview and scrutiny committee (JOSC) will reflect the membership of Cyngor Gwynedd rather than the membership of all North Wales councils in aggregate.

4.         To agree that the secretariat for the JOSC will be provided by the CJC in accordance with the Terms of Reference.