The Council's approved calendar of meetings for 2020/21 has been suspended for the medium term as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Members and officers are actively working to bring about new proposals for virtual meetings.
Any meetings that will be held virtually will be published on this section of the website, meeting Access to Information Rules (clear 5 day publication of agendas) and as far as is practicable on the Council's social media platforms.
Any future changes to the way in which meetings are to be carried out, by which committee, or individual, will also be detailed here.
Following the cancellation of the meeting of Annual Council for 2020/2021 the appointments made at the Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2019 and throughout the Municipal Year will continue into the 2020/21 Municipal Year, namely:
(i) Councillor David Borrow as Mayor
(ii) Councillor Javed Iqbal as Deputy Mayor
(iii) Councillor Matthew Brown as Leader of the Council
(iv) Membership of Council Committees and Sub-Committees, including those appointments to Chair and Vice-Chair of such Committees and Sub-Committees will continue until the Council's next Annual Council meeting in 2021 or until such time as the Council may determine.
The Leader of the Council has confirmed that the Members to which he appointed to the Executive and presented to the Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2019 will continue in those roles until such time that he may determine:
(i) Councillor Peter Moss, Cabinet Member Planning and Regulation and Deputy Leader of the Council
(ii) Councillor Martyn Rawlinson, Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance
(iii) Councillor Robert Boswell, Cabinet Member for the Environment
(iv) Councillor Peter Kelly, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure
(v) Councillor Nweeda Khan, Cabinet Member for Communities and Social Justice
(vi) Councillor Freddie Bailey, Cabinet Member for Community Wealth Building
It should also be noted that all local Council elections scheduled for 7 May 2020 have been cancelled and will take place in May 2021.
As such, all current elected Councillors remain in office.
During these unprecedented times decisions still have to be made to enable the Council to carry out its daily business.
To ensure that decisions are made in an open and transparent way, the Council has agreed to undertake the following arrangements.
The Leader of the Council will determine all Executive decisions which would have been carried out by the Cabinet, until further notice.
Decisions will be made under the heading 'Leader Taking Decisions During the Covid-19 Outbreak' and details of the business to be taken by him, and when.
The reports which would normally be taken to the Cabinet will be provided for information, however, any item which would normally be excluded from the press and public because it contains confidential information of exempt information under Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 will remain exempt from publication, but the title of the report will be provided for information purposes.
Decisions taken by the Leader in these circumstances will be subject to Call-In by elected Members, so the decision will only come into force and then be implemented on the expiry of 5 working days after the publication of the decision, unless such a decision is Called-In.
The decision notices (minutes) will be published as soon as is practicable after the Leader has taken the decision.
Non-Executive decisions will be taken by the Chief Executive exercising his emergency powers.
Details of the business to be transacted can be found under the title of 'Chief Executive Taking Non-Executive Decisions Under Emergency Powers'.
Decisions will only be taken after the Chief Executive has consulted with each Group Leader who will have taken into account any representations made by the Members from their group, where time permits.
The reports which would normally be taken to Council or Committees will be provided for information, however, any report which would normally be excluded from the press and public because it contained confidential information or exempt information under Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 will remain exempt from publication but the title of the report will be provided for information purposes.
The Decision Notices (Minutes) will be published as soon as is practicable after the decisions have been taken.
If any future meetings are to be held virtually, updates and arrangements will be placed on the Council's website and access to the agenda and reports will be available prior to the meeting.
