Bearing in mind Council’s adoption at its 19 February 2020 meeting of the mileage and related travel expenses policy for employees. Council now resolves to incorporate the stated paragraph below from that policy into the Members Allowance Scheme. The stated paragraph to be inserted as the first paragraph of section 6.4 of the Members Allowance Scheme with subsequent paragraphs of the section re-numbered accordingly.
The stated paragraph is:
Official travel must always be conducted in an economical manner and alternative means such as telephone/video conferencing, public transport, pool cars etc must be considered as a first option. This approach supports the Council’s Climate Change and Transformation agendas.
Minutes:
a) Motion from Councillor James Watson:
Bearing in mind Council’s adoption at its 19 February 2020 meeting of the mileage and related travel expenses policy for employees. Council now resolves to incorporate the stated paragraph below from that policy into the Members Allowance Scheme. The stated paragraph to be inserted as the first paragraph of section 6.4 of the Members Allowance Scheme with subsequent paragraphs of the section renumbered accordingly.
The stated paragraph is:
Official travel must always be conducted in an economical manner and alternative means such as telephone/video conferencing, public transport, pool cars etc must be considered as a first option. This approach supports the Council’s Climate Change and Transformation agendas.
The motion was moved by Councillor James Watson and seconded by Councillor Ross Walker. Councillor Ross Walker reserved the right to speak.
Councillor James Watson spoke in support of his motion by stating his belief that if the stated paragraph was good enough to be in the officer policy, it was good enough to be in the Member one as well.
Councillor Andrew Joesbury spoke on the motion and expressed his belief that Members already did conduct official travel economically. He felt that Councillor James Watson’s travelling carbon footprint might not be high because of his attendance record at meetings.
The Chair reminded Councillor Andrew Joesbury not to make personal remarks.
Councillor Ross Walker responded to Councillor Andrew Joesbury by stating how some Members were unable to attend meetings because of what he felt was the Council’s failure to consider changing meeting times for working people.
The Leader of the Council spoke on the motion. He stated that he did not think the motion was unreasonable, but he felt it would be better served as something for the Standards Committee to consider instead, so the Committee could discuss the issue in a coherent and reasonable manner.
AMENDMENT
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12.6, Councillor Steve Fritchley (Leader of the Council) moved an amendment to the motion to refer the motion to the Standards Committee for consideration. The amendment was seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor.
Councillor James Watson exercised his right of reply by stating his belief that this was not an issue that required referral to Standards Committee, and it should instead simply be adopted by Members. He felt that the amendment was palming the issue off to another body instead of actually considering it, and was concerned that some past motions that were referred to other bodies by Council appeared to never be dealt with, like the one he submitted to Council about air quality on 11th September 2019, or the social media live streaming motion submitted to Annual Council on 22nd May 2019 by Councillor Natalie Hoy.
On being put to the vote, the amendment to the motion was carried.
On being put to the vote, the substantive motion was carried. Councillor James Watson wished his disapproval of the substantive motion to be recorded.
RESOLVED that the motion be referred to the Standards Committee for consideration.
(Governance Manager)