Council considered the Monitoring Officer’s report published with the agenda and a supplementary report published after the agenda, asking Council to approve the appointment of the council’s independent persons for a term of five years to 30 November 2024 following a formal recruitment exercise.

Councillor Aziz, the Chair of the Standards Committee, presented the report. She moved the recommendations, and asked Council to appoint the individuals named below. This was agreed unanimously on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to:

1.    approve the appointment of Chris Ballinger, Andrew Mills-Hicks, Jill McCleery and Osama Raja as the council’s independent persons for a term of five years to 30 November 2024; and

2.    delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to make the necessary arrangements.

Council considered a report of the Monitoring Officer asking Council to approve the appointment of the council’s independent persons.

Council noted that due to the availability of applicants and suitable interview dates, it had not been possible to complete all the interviews before this meeting. A recommendation as to suitable appointments could not be made until these were completed.

Consequently, new recommendations had been circulated to councillors in the briefing note.

As the Committee Chair was not present, Councillor Pressel, the Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee, presented and moved these new recommendations, which were agreed on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to extend the term of the current independent persons by a further month to 30 November 2019 to allow the recruitment process to conclude, and to consider the outcome and recommendations at its next meeting.

Council considered a report of the Monitoring Officer asking for authorisation to extend the terms of office of the council’s independent persons for a further three months to 31 October 2019.

Councillor Aziz, the Chair of the Standards Committee, presented the report and moved the recommendations, which were agreed on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to authorise the Monitoring Officer to extend the terms of office of the Council’s Independent Persons for a further three months to 31 October 2019.