Tweak to constitution will confirm that Powys council chair has the final say on rejecting motions for debate
Changes being proposed to Powys County Council’s constitution will confirm that the council chairman has the final say on which motions are debated by councillors or rejected
The issue has caused some controversy during the last year as a couple motions put forward by opposition groups have been rejected by the council chairman during 2024/2025, Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson (Conservative – Meifod and Llangyniew) following advice from the council’s legal chiefs.
These include a motion of no confidence in cabinet member Cllr Jackie Charlton (Liberal Democrat) and moves to hold an extraordinary meeting to debate a motion to scrap the controversial booking system and charges at recycling centres which came into force in April.
The section on the constitution which deals with rejecting motions to council was discussed at a meeting of the council’s Democratic Services committee on Tuesday, September 2.
It forms part of a swathe of changes needed to update the council’s constitution and follows a full review of the constitution conducted by the council legal chiefs.
These will be discussed by the committee in “chunks” over the coming months before being put to all councillors to ratify in future council meetings.
Committee chairman Cllr Graham Breeze (Powys Independents – Welshpool Llanerchyddol) said: “Section 4.39 deals with the rejection of motions and says that they can be rejected in the opinion of the monitoring officer and the chairman.
“My question there is who pulls rank if there’s a disagreement?”
Head of legal services and monitoring officer Clive Pinney said: “My view is that the chairman always takes precedence, and the officer will give advice.
“The chairman will either follow it or not.
“We’ve never had disagreements so far.”
Leader of the Reform group Cllr Iain McIntosh (Yscir, Honddu and Llanddew Isaf) believed there had been disagreements in the past.
Cllr McIntosh said: “The general feeling is that they were told to do this and could not do anything about it.
“If it is the case that chairmen have the upper hand, then we need to be clear about that.”
Mr Pinney “could not recall” any instances where he and a chairman had disagreed over rejecting a motion but he was “happy to amend” this section.
Cllr Breeze added: “I have also spoken to chairmen and been told they felt they had no alternative but to accept the monitoring officer’s advice, so I think there is some confusion.”
Mr Pinney said that during discussions on motions he could have given “forthright advice.”
Cllr Danny Bebb (Liberal Democrat – Churchstoke) pointed out that the section also explained circumstances where the monitoring officer’s advice has to be followed and motions rejected.
These include when a motion is about matters outside the council’s responsibility or whether it is defamatory, frivolous or offensive, or not legally sound.
Mr Pinney said that this was “correct,” and the chair has “no discretion” when this is the case.
The committee went ahead and voted to amend the section.
