Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:  To note the apologies received from Mr Shankar Sivashankar and Mr Martin Nolan.

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             after notifying the Chair at the start of the meeting.

RESOLVED: To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

RESOLVED: To note that the following interest was declared:

To consider whether any of the items listed on the agenda should be considered with the press and public excluded on the grounds that it is thought likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that there would be disclosure of confidential information in breach of an obligation of confidence or of exempt information as defined in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

RESOLVED:  That (1) agenda item 10 be considered immediately after item 7;

(2)  in accordance with the Local Government  (Access to Information) Act 1985, the following agenda items be admitted late to the agenda by virtue of the special circumstances and grounds for urgency detailed below:-

(3) that all items be considered with the press and public present.

That the minutes of the meetings held on 5 July and 21 July 2005, having been circulated, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meetings held on 5 July 2005 and 21 July 2005, having been circulated, be taken as read and signed as a correct record

The Chair expressed a concern that reports for items 11 – Middle Management Review, 12 – Concerns Over Pace of Change, 14 – Use of Consultants and 15 – Budget Cuts had not been received prior to the meeting.  She explained that she had had discussions with UNISON officers following a previous meeting of the Forum where they had agreed that documents would be circulated to Forum Members prior to meetings.  The Chair stated that none of the items above could be considered as urgent.

A UNISON representative explained that UNISON officers were not full time officials and did not have sufficient time to prepare reports.  The UNISON representative requested that the items be discussed.

Other Councillors on the Forum agreed unanimously with the Chair’s ruling, especially as this issue had been discussed at previous Forum meetings.

RESOLVED: That the tabled reports would not be considered at this meeting.

[Notes: (1) Following the above resolution, one of the representatives of UNISON left the meeting;

(2) following the departure of the UNISON representative, it was noted that the Employees’ Consultative Forum was inquorate, as three members from the Employees’ side were required to be present to make the meeting quorate;

(3)  It was noted that, as the Forum was inquorate, it would not be able to take any decisions but that it could make recommendations to the next (quorate) meeting of the Forum;

(4) in view of the above, the remaining Members of the Forum present at the meeting discussed, informally, the issue of late reports].