Agenda and draft minutes

To receive the Chairman’s communications, if any.

The Chairman opened the meeting by asking Members to observe one minutes silence in remembrance of former councillor, Brian Hannah, who had served as an elected member of the Council, representing Sheringham, for 22 years from 1997 to 2019.

He then invited the Leader to say a few words. Cllr S Butikofer said that Mr Hannah had been known as ‘Mr Sheringham’ and had been involved in organisations in the town throughout his life. He was a very strong character who fought very hard for his beliefs. He was extremely proud of his family and thoroughly enjoyed his year as Chairman of Norfolk County Council, with his wife Beverley as his consort. She concluded by saying that it had been a real pleasure to work with Brian and he would be very sorely missed.

The Chairman thanked the Leader and said that before moving onto the next agenda item, he wanted to congratulate Cllr Cushing on his recent appointment as Group Leader for the Conservative Group.

To receive apologies for absence, if any.

Apologies had been received from Cllrs G Hayman, S Penfold, J Punchard and John Toye.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests that they may have in any of the following items on the agenda.  The Code of Conduct for Members requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

None.

To consider any items of urgent business, as agreed by the Chairman.

To pass the following resolution – if necessary:

“That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) _ of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) to the Act.”

The Chairman reminded Members that there were exempt appendices to the report. He said that if any Member wished to discuss any information within the appendices then the meeting would need to go into private session.

The Leader, Cllr S Bütikofer, introduced this item. She began by saying that the decision to take the report to Full Council had not been taken lightly. The proposed consultation was in no way a reflection on the characters of the post holders.

The report before Members was the same one that had been considered by Cabinet on 6^th January and the Employment & Appeals Committee on 7^th January. There was no requirement within the Constitution for Full Council to consider the report but she wanted the process to be as transparent as possible, adding that if the proposal to restructure was supported then it would come back to Council for further consideration.

The Leader then outlined the background to the proposal. She explained that in 2016 there had been an opportunity to explore a shared chief executive model with Great Yarmouth Borough Council. This was suddenly dropped, without explanation, and quickly followed by the departure of three of the Council’s senior officers who joined Great Yarmouth BC on a permanent basis. A report was then taken to Full Council in September 2016 to appoint the two Corporate Directors as Joint Heads of Paid Service on an interim basis. Cllr Bütikofer raised her concerns about the impact of this decision at the time. In November 2016 these appointments were made permanent and once again Cllr Bütikofer voiced her concerns strongly at Full Council.

Twelve months later, Cllr Bütikofer became leader of the Council. She sought advice from the LGA on the structure and was told that it was ‘of concern’. They advised that no other council operated a joint heads of paid service model, whilst some had two corporate directors who rotated the head of paid service role between themselves. At the time she was Leader of a hung council and did not feel that it was appropriate to take action, she also wanted to see for herself how the model worked in action. Shortly afterwards, the Investors in People (IIP) assessment was commissioned by senior officers and this highlighted some areas of concern regarding the leadership of the Council.

In May 2019, following the District Council elections, Cllr Bütikofer, now Leader of a new administration, raised concerns about several projects. No specific officers were involved but there was a link between them that couldn’t be ignored. A decision was taken to commission a capability review of the Council to see if it could deliver on the ambitions of the new administration.

The Leader explained that the final page of the Capability Review was not published at the time because it made uncomfortable reading for some staff. A decision was then taken to move to consultation regarding the two senior officer posts. This was put on hold due to an investigation. This investigation was now concluded and it was time to proceed with the consultation process.

Cllr E Seward, Deputy Leader, seconded the proposals and said that he wished to reserve his right to speak.

The Chairman invited Cllr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.