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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED that the minutes of the Democratic Services Committee meeting held on the 20th September 2024 be confirmed as a correct record.
RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales’ decisions for 2025 – 2026 and the Panel’s attention be drawn to members’ comments on the Panel’s use of council size groupings.
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the political group leaders’ duties and the Standards Committee processes for reviewing group leaders’ compliance with their duties.
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the report and the views expressed in the discussion particularly in respect of protecting the identities and voice of rural wards.
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the development of the YouTube archive for webcasts.
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the verbal report on the forward work programme.
Apologies for absence were submitted by councillors Andrea Tomlin, Cheryl Williams and Elfed Williams.
There were no urgent matters.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that the minutes of the Democratic Services Committee meeting held on the 20th September 2024 be confirmed as a correct record.
The minutes of the Democratic Services Committee meeting held on the 20th September 2024 were submitted. RESOLVED that the minutes of the Democratic Services Committee meeting held on the 20th September 2024 be confirmed as a correct record.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.
The Democratic Services Manager (DSM) introduced a report (previously circulated) on the Single Transferable Vote system. The DSM reminded members that Principal councils have been given the power to change from the existing first-past-the post system to single transferable vote, a proportional voting system, for county council elections. He outlined how today’s report contained a reminder of the background information on the legislative steps needed to change voting systems that have previously been considered by members at this committee, in an all-member workshop and by the group leaders. Members were advised that the steps needed to change the voting system were: • An endorsement from councillors to take STV proposals forward. • A consultation about the possible change with the local government electors, city, town and community councils and any other people the council considered appropriate. • By a cut-off point – for this term it was the 15th November 2024 – holding a specially convened Council meeting with 21 days’ notice given of the meeting. • The Council voting in favour of a change by a two-thirds majority of the total number of council seats. • Following Council approval, the notification of the decision to Welsh Ministers and the Boundary Commission. • A boundary review of the Council’s wards completed. Each ward would be a multi-member ward with between 3 and 6 members per ward. The DSM stated that at the last meeting the Committee had agreed for today’s discussion to consider the consultation process needed for the Council to change its voting system to the single transferable vote method, namely with local government electors, city, town and community councils and any other people the council considered appropriate. The likely consultation arrangements would be as follows: • Publication of information about the voting systems and an electronic questionnaire on the Council’s ‘Consultation and Engagement’ website pages. • Making available printed and posted versions of the questionnaire on request and from Council offices, libraries and one-stop shops. • Emailing a questionnaire or a link to the website questionnaire to the clerks of the city, town and community councils. • Promotion of the consultation by emails and bulletins to county councillors and to Council staff. • Promotion through press releases and over the Council’s social media channels. • Verification of the persons responding to the questionnaire to ensure that only those over the age of 16 and registered as local government electors in Denbighshire were included in the questionnaire results. The DSM reported that in October last year, Gwynedd Council held an extraordinary meeting of the Council to consider their voting system. Their consultation exercise was responded to by 882 individuals, which equated to 1% of Gwynedd’s electorate. 72% of those responding were in favour of using STV. Of the 13 responses from Gwynedd’s city, town and community councils, 23% were in favour of using STV. In response to a question the DSM reported that consultation activities would primarily rely on officer time. He advised that a consultation exercise would be undertaken within existing staff and budgetary resources. As a result, the timing of a consultation exercise would be an important consideration for the allocation of staffing resources. RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales’ decisions for 2025 – 2026 and the Panel’s attention be drawn to members’ comments on the Panel’s use of council size groupings.
The Democratic Services Manager (DSM) introduced a report (previously circulated) to advise the committee of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales’ (the ‘Panel’) decisions for 2025 – 2026 regarding payments to elected and co-opted members. The DSM advised members that the Panel was established in 2008 and its remit included councillors, fire and rescue authorities and city, community and town councils. The Panel could stipulate the amount of payments an authority made to a member and the duties and responsibilities which qualify councillors to receive payments. Each year around February time the Panel’s report sets out the rules for and the levels of member payments for the coming year which the Council was required to follow. The committee was advised that this was the final annual report before the Panel’s functions transferred over to the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru from the 1st April 2025 as a result of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024, which expanded the role of the boundary commission and abolishes the Panel. Members were advised of the following points: • There have been no changes made this year to allowances for travel and subsistence. • A link between the basic salary of councillors and the average salaries of their constituents would be retained. The basic level of salary for elected members of principal councils was set to be £19,771. • The payments for senior and civic salary roles remain banded; with Band 1 being the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, the remaining Cabinet members in Band 2. The Cabinet bands were further grouped into council sizes with corresponding salary levels. Denbighshire County Council was a Group C council as shown in table 1 of the annual report. • The Panel has noted the changes to working practices that has meant a move towards more frequent use of often short and more regular online meetings and training courses. It has therefore determined there should be local flexibility for applying a day or a half day rate or to use an hourly rate where it was sensible to aggregate a number of short meetings, as outlined in Table 3 of the panel’s report. • The Panel continued to mandate payments by city, town and community councils for the extra costs of working from home and payments for office consumables. There was no change to the Determination made last year. A copy of the Panel’s annual report has been sent to the city, town and community council clerks. In terms of the costs, the annual report largely continued the previous payment structure. The Panel’s increase in the basic, senior and civic salaries equated to an increase of £68,356 or 5.9% for 2025 - 2026. The costs associated with the work of the voting co-opted members would be dependent on the amount of official business they were required to undertake, and any changes the Council made to the time-commitment payment rules. In the discussion that followed, Councillor Martyn Hogg acknowledged the added pressure on the members’ budget as a result of the increased salaries but he fully endorsed the principal behind them which was to reduce the financial barriers to standing as a candidate, especially for people on lower incomes or those who could not afford to undertake council work without a level of financial remuneration for their time. Councillor Hugh Evans queried the practice of having lay-member chairs of the Governance and Audit and Standards Committees, which although a statutory requirement, excluded consideration of suitable elected members. Councillor Hugh Evans and Delyth Jones were in agreement that the Panel’s use of council group sizes based on population sizes was not an appropriate measure for differentiating the levels of remuneration between elected members undertaking the same roles in different authorities. This viewpoint was not unanimously held by the committee members, Councillor Brian Jones expressing his disagreement with the point, but the committee agreed that the comments made on council size groupings be passed to the Panel. RESOLVED – that the committee notes the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales’ decisions for 2025 – 2026 and the Panel’s attention be drawn to members’ comments on the Panel’s use of council size groupings.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the political group leaders’ duties and the Standards Committee processes for reviewing group leaders’ compliance with their duties.
The Head of Corporate Support Services – People (HCSSP) introduced a report (previously circulated) on the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 and Duties of Political Group Leaders. The report related to the duties of the Political Group Leaders to take reasonable steps to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by members of their group and to co-operate with the Standards Committee as it exercised its functions. The HCSSP outlined for the committee the process in place for working with the group leaders and the use of standard forms (appended to the report) to support the process. She further advised that following the submission of a group leader’s form, the group leader would be interviewed by Standards Committee members to discuss the actions taken to comply with their group leader duty and to identify any support or training for the group leader. Following this, the Chair of the Standards Committee would report formally to the Standards Committee on whether the group leaders had discharged their duty to take reasonable steps to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by members of their group and to co-operate with the Standards Committee. The HCSSP reported that the Standards Committee had been satisfied that each of the group leaders had successfully discharged those duties. In terms of timescales, the HCSSP advised that this latest round of group leader reviews had been delayed owing to staffing changes but the next round would commence in April 2025 with a view to presenting formally to the Standards Committee’s June 2025 meeting. In the ensuing discussion the following points were made: · As a group leader, Councillor Martyn Hogg found the process to be useful, helping him to focus positively on this issue. · Councillor Brian Jones became a group leader at a later stage of the previous review process. He reported that the support arrangements for group leaders lacked clarity on how group leaders should resolve difficult issues within their groups. This was an issue Councillor Jones had encountered and resolved but he felt it could be problem group leaders would face. · In responding to Councillor Jones, the HCSSP confirmed that support for group leaders was likely to involve the Monitoring Officer, the HCSSP and the Democratic Services Manager as contacts. · Group leader Delyth Jones advised that she met regularly with her group and was comfortable with the support arrangements in place through the Monitoring Officer. RESOLVED – that the committee notes the political group leaders’ duties and the Standards Committee processes for reviewing group leaders’ compliance with their duties.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the report and the views expressed in the discussion particularly in respect of protecting the identities and voice of rural wards.
The Democratic Services Manager (DSM) introduced a report (previously circulated) about the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru’s 2025 electoral review programme. The DSM reported that the Boundary Commission had published its draft Policy and Practice document, the final version of which would set out the Commission’s aims and parameters for the electoral reviews for each local authority area in Wales. Members were advised that the Boundary Commission must review the electoral arrangements for each principal area at least once every 12 years, with the cycle beginning on the 30 September 2023. Electoral arrangements were: · the number of members on the council; · the number, type and boundaries of the wards; · the number of members to be elected for individual wards; and · the name of each ward. The DSM stated that the Policy and Practice 2025 consultation document (attached to the report as appendix 1) provided information on the Commission’s draft principals for its Council Size Methodology. In preparation for the electoral review programme research was commissioned by the Commission on Councillors’ workloads and the factors which affected it. This research has informed the draft Policy and Practice for the electoral review programme and was shown as appendix 2 of the committee’s report. The committee was advised that if the Commission recommended changes to the electoral arrangements for Denbighshire County Council it might also recommend consequential changes to the boundaries, councils or electoral arrangements of communities within Denbighshire. The Commission was seeking views on the Policy and Practice document with the closing date for responses being the 24 March 2025. After this a final version would be published that would include a timetable for the reviews and the final council size policy the Commission would use. The Commission intended to start the Electoral Review Programme from April 2025. Councillor Hugh Evans stated that local councillors should have a say in the decisions made about the wards and communities they represent, a view supported by Councillor Martyn Hogg who queried how the Boundary Commission would capture members’ views. The DSM referred to the electoral review undertaken during the previous Council term which had led to some changes in the electoral arrangements being implemented for the May 2022 council elections. Councillor Ellie Chard reported the focus during that last review on electoral parity, where each ward would have approximately the same number of constituents per councillor. Councillor Brian Jones stated that rural wards should be single member wards as that helped maintain local connections and knowledge, though he was pessimistic about the prospects of local councillors being able to influence the national bodies on matters like this electoral review. Councillor Julie Matthews referred to her ward of Meliden which, though often linked with Prestatyn, saw itself as also having its own separate identity, and therefore it was appropriate for Meliden to be a single member ward. Councillor Martyn Hogg, as Chair of the committee, encouraged members to respond to the Boundary Commission’s consultation to share their views with the Commission. RESOLVED – that the committee notes the report and the views expressed in the discussion particularly in respect of protecting the identities and voice of rural wards.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the development of the YouTube archive for webcasts.
The Democratic Services Manager (DSM) introduced a report (previously circulated) on the development of a permanent webcast archive. The DSM reported that the council went far beyond its statutory requirements for webcasting public meetings by live streaming most of the councillor-level public meetings. The recordings of those meetings were available after the meeting ends for a 6-month period before being removed from the webcasting website. He advised that the 6-month retention period was a standard feature of the Council’s contract with its webcasting system provider. The availability of webcasts could have been extended beyond 6 months or retained indefinitely but that would have incurred additional and ongoing costs. A change in the Council’s webcasting supplier would also mean that the archived webcasts would no longer be available from the existing archive. Members were advised that the existing 6-month archive supported by the Council’s webcasting provider would be extended to be a 12-month archive following an agreement with the supplier. In addition to this, work had been progressing to create a larger, permanent and public webcast archive on the Council’s YouTube channel. The DSM outlined the work undertaken including the transferring to YouTube of the English and Welsh versions of each webcast, and the addition of suitable descriptions and agenda item timelines for each webcast. Currently, the DSM said that around a dozen webcasts had been published on YouTube but many more would soon be added and information on how to access the archive circulated. RESOLVED – that the committee notes the development of the YouTube archive for webcasts.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – that the committee notes the verbal report on the forward work programme.
The Democratic Services Manager (DSM) introduced the forward work programme stating that there were currently no items listed for the next Democratic Services Committee in September. However, he was confident that suitable items would be available for that meeting and members of the committee were also invited to propose agenda items either now or through the DSM and the committee’s Chair, Councillor Hogg. Councillor Brian Jones queried the extent of the committee’s remit, which the DSM clarified, and Councillor Jones informed the committee he would be interested in reviewing the developing scrutiny arrangements for the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee. RESOLVED – that the committee notes the verbal report on the forward work programme.
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