Agenda item

Mr Craig Griffiths (Head of Legal and Democratic Services for Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council) introduced the report and explained that legislation has been created relating to how the Corporate Joint Committees must operate, setting out roles and responsibilities and prescribing the manner in which the Corporate Joint Committee must discharge its functions.

It was explained that at this first meeting, the Committee is required to adopt a set of standing orders by which the Corporate Joint Committee will be governed. This includes the appointment of several statutory roles, whereby it was proposed that:

-       The Chief Executive role will be rotated annually between constituent Councils and will commence with Mrs Karen Jones from Neath Port Talbot Council

-       The s151and Chief Finance Officer will be Chris Moore from Camarthenshire Council

-       The Monitoring Officer will be Craig Griffiths from Neath Port Talbot Council

Mr Griffiths explained that the constitution also details the proposed governance regime of the Corporate Joint Committee with details on how decisions will be taken including the creation of Scrutiny, Governance and Audit and Sub Committees.

Members attention was drawn to the appendixes of the report which include the proposed constitution, rules of procedure, access to information procedure rule and a code of conduct for members.

It was stated that colleagues from the Brecon Beacons National Park had made some minor observations to officers on the content of the constitution documentation. Mr Craig Griffiths committed to discussing the detail of this with the Brecon Beacons National Park Monitoring Officer and stated he intends on bringing a revised and final version of the constitution documents to the next meeting of the Corporate Joint Committee.

It was clarified that the National Parks are excluded from voting on the adoption of the constitution due to the guidance on voting rights set out in the legislation and that National Parks have voting rights on Strategic Planning matters and associated issues only.

RESOLVED:

-       Members approved the allocation of operational responsibilities of the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee as  set out in paragraph 7 and authorised the entering into of agreements between the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee and the Constituent Councils identified to provide these services

-       Members approved the creation of the sub-committees identified at paragraph 14 of the report and the proposed representatives appointed to the sub-committee set out at paragraph 15

-       Members approved  the establishment of Governance and Audit Sub-Committee Committee for the South West Wales  Corporate Joint Committee as set out in paragraphs 18-22 of this report;