Scottish Borders Council

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: via MS Teams

Contact: Jenny Wilkinson Tel: 01835 825004  Email:  jjwilkinson@scotborders.gov.uk

Link: TeamsLiveEvent

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the special meeting of the Berwickshire Area Partnership which was due to consider a report on the proposed appointment process and procedural rules for the Berwickshire Community Fund Assessment Panel.  The meeting was held via Microsoft Teams and the Chair outlined how the meeting would be conducted and how those both in the meeting and watching via the Live Stream could take part.

 

2.

Berwickshire Community Fund Assessment Panel pdf icon PDF 155 KB

Consider report by Service Director Customer & Communities.  (Attached)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

2.1       With reference to paragraph 10 of the Minute of 20 May 2021, copies of a report by the Service Director, Customer and Communities, on the Berwickshire Community Fund Assessment Panel had been circulated.  The Clerk to the Council, Ms Wilkinson, presented the report which proposed details on how members would be appointed to the Panel and how the Panel would operate with regarding to meetings.  The recruitment process for membership of the Assessment Panel from people living in Berwickshire began on 24 May, with a closing date for applications of 14 June 2021.  It had originally been proposed that all members of the Assessment Panel, including the 3 SBC Councillors, would have equal voting rights.  Howver, that had given rise to a potential conflict of interest when recommendations from the Assessment Panel were considered by the Area Partnership.  It was now proposed that the 3 SBC Councillors would be non-voting members of the Assessment Panel.   Ms Wilkinson further advised that reference to these SBC Councillors being ex-officio members was incorrect and they would be non-voting members.  With regard to the appointment of applicants from the Berwickshire area public to the Assessment Panel, it was proposed that this decision should be delegated to the Service Director, Customer & Communities, in consultation with the Chair of the Berwickshire Area Partnership and the Executive Member for Community Development and Localities.  Suitable training would be provided to all members of the Assessment Panel.  Details of the proposed constitution and procedural rules for the Assessment Panel were given in the Appendix to the report.

 

2.2       The Chief Legal Officer, Mrs McKinlay, explained that the reason for the proposed change to SBC Councillors having voting rights at the Assessment Panel was that the award of a grant would fall within Section 7 of the Local Authority Councillors Code of Conduct and in that respect was a quasi-judicial matter.  The Code of Conduct stated that local authority Councillors could express a provisional view but could not form a final view until they had all information before them so any Councillor who was to vote at the Assessment Panel and then vote again at a subsequent Area Partnership meeting (should consensus not be reached on a recommendation from the Assessment Panel) would find themselves at risk of being in breach of the Code of Conduct.  Members of the Area Partnership queried the role of the SBC Councillors on the Assessment Panel and expressed disappointment that all members of the Panel would not have equal voting rights.  Mrs McKinlay confirmed that SBC Councillors could still participate in the questioning and debating at the Assessment Panel meetings but the key for them was this did not form a final view as if they were to advocate for or against a particular application then they would have to declare an interest at the meeting of the Area Partnership and not take part.  This restriction only applied to SBC Councillors.  Ms Wilkinson confirmed that any recommendations from the Assessment Panel would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

No other items of business were raised.

4.

Date of Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the Berwickshire Area Partnership is on Thursday 1 July 2021 at 6:30pm.  This meeting will be held via Microsoft Teams and will be livestreamed.

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Area Partnership was scheduled to take place on 1 July 2021 at 6:30pm.

 

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Scottish Borders Council

Council Headquarters Newtown St. Boswells Melrose TD6 0SA

Tel: 0300 100 1800

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