Agenda item

Invitees:

Leanne Rowlands – Democratic Services Manager

Gareth Price – Head of Law and Regulation

The Democratic Services Manager provided the Committee with a presentation update on where the Council is with the draft participation strategy to encourage citizens in being more involved with Local Authority decision making processes.

Key points:

There are two key requirements in order to promote the council’s functions; the first is to reach the public by promoting awareness and providing ways to get members of the public to access the information easily. The Council are looking to draw the constitution into one accessible guide and to improve the Council website’s search facility to make it more user friendly to build public engagement.

The second requirement is to promote how to become a Member of the Council in order to represent the residents of their community. The Council are looking to build on the website page on how to become a councillor, the Lead Officer discussed the points in the presentation in detail to the Committee.

Members were advised that this would come back to Committee at the end of January with a full draft document in advance of the consultation period. After the consultation, the full strategy will be presented to the council in March prior to the deadline publication in May.

The Lead Officer mentioned the further actions that the council will take under the act, such as putting a petition scheme in place so residents know the process and Members know what the council can do when in receipt of the same. The next steps include future members training and to base it around member seminar training including the importance of social media platforms.

Committee raised the following points:

·         The Committee agreed they were happy with the return of the documents to come to the Committee in January and noted that the presentation was easy to follow.

·         Councillor Giles assured that promotion is good but the language and wording that the council will use needs to be easily understood. The Member mentioned it would be good to learn what has been contributed from the public toward the work, if it includes public comments i.e. if the website suggestions are from feedback and if the officers have taken into account other Local Authorities’ practices.

The Democratic Services Manager confirmed that it is embedded in the presentation of what the residents look at – not on the website at present but it usually comes up with a feedback survey asking what their visit was like that day. Customer Services regularly run surveys and also request feedback from residents on the digital provision.

The other local authorities are in the same position in developing a strategy for May 2022. They are also working towards meeting the first publication date but they are in the first stage of publishing the strategy, then after that they look to improve and develop as Newport will be doing also.

The Head of Service informed the Committee that the strategy is intended as live document - as a starter, when the Democratic Services Manager brings the final document to the Members, it will formalise what the council are doing currently. The plan is to keep it constantly under review with actions for improvement over time as once the council has a strategy in place, they can work with the community on how to improve communication on that. It was reiterated that this is the start in terms of codifying a document of what the council currently does now and the first step is to consult with the public in February on what they think of the strategy. When it will be adopted in May, they will use it as a document moving forward to see how to improve things and review with a set of improvement targets.

·         A comment was made by Councillor Watkins that as a Councillor he receives continual complaints about the council website being too complicated to operate so will be interested in how the feedback goes out to see if residents mention that.

·         Councillor Whitcutt noted that it can be often simpler to google what they need rather than search the council website itself. It was mentioned that the Cabinet Member for Assets and Resources has been raising the issue for a long period of time. The Member echoed Councillor Giles’ point about the type of language concerned to encourage the public as the constitution needs to be user friendly yet dealt with a great deal of care.

·         Councillor M. Evans agreed with the prior point that the website is not user friendly. The Member mentioned they receive questions from residents about parking permits and that it should be about simplicity. An example was mentioned, if someone wanted to watch the council committee, they would have to go on YouTube and type it in as there is no direct link on the website. With regard to the petition schemes mentioned, the Member recalled a previous mechanism in place to deal with petitions. It was requested to see more information in January such as research on what other councils are doing on engaging with the public on petitions. The Member referred to the concerns that Scrutiny Committee had expressed about the public consultation public space protection order and that they would be interested to hear about other petition schemes in the United Kingdom.

In response, the Head of Service explained that the policy mentioned is about how the petitions are presented, the council never had a strategy on how they were dealt with and responded to. The petitions used to be physically presented to the Mayor.

A procedure on how petitions should be dealt with and reported is something the council wish to develop. For instance, a policy on how they are responded to and how the council keeps a record to show that they are dealt with properly.

Petitions and the website have improvements going forward, and the consultation document is codifying what the council currently does but on the final document the committee can decide what they wish to action and flag up.

·         Councillor M. Evans asked to clarify what happens to petitions when they are received by the council.

The Head of Service confirmed that they are dealt with at an operational level and are submitted to the relevant Head of Service, including the relevant Cabinet Member if necessary. However, the outcome and the response is not routinely reported back to any Committee.

·         Councillor M. Evans queried if Members could be informed of petitions from the public through a simple system reported to a committee. That way they can promote awareness of the council as the Members would know the process.

The Head of Service confirmed if the Committee would like to make the recommendation then the council can take that on board.

·         The Chair added that clarity and better knowledge on how the council receives petitions would be good.

The Head of Service responded that receiving petitions is not the current issue. They are directed to the relevant Head of Service and submitted online as with the Senedd/Houses of Parliament. However the officer recognised that more information on the council website could be put on about how petitions can be submitted. It was acknowledged that what needs to be clearer is what happens to the petitions when they are in the system and to make members aware of how many have been received and how many responded to.

·         Councillor K. Thomas commented that she has also received complaints from residents about the website, many of those in relation to parking permits. It was mentioned that officers have not accepted that there is an issue. The Member will be interested to find out should the data show there is an issue such as people going off the website after becoming distressed from the experience.

With regard to the petition schemes; the Member went on to advise that with online petitions, they are unaware of how the Senedd conducts them online but mentioned the checks needed and balances available in physical form. The Member used a recent example where a resident mentioned a petition with random individuals signing it but might not understand the necessary qualifications needed for residents to sign i.e. the council would need to know how to check the validity and the address details when received.

·         Councillor Hourahine touched on Councillor Whitcutt’s comments about the constitution. It was acknowledged as complex and a streamlined constitution is a major piece of work, it should be reviewed and requested for it to be a possible area of work that the council should consider.

With regard to a committee being informed about petitions, the Member noted that the council should not consider adding another layer of bureaucracy on petitions going ahead as it could take even longer. It was argued that the council does not need a petition monitoring system; but a robust determining strategy of what happens to these petitions.

In response, the Head of Service informed the Members that it is a short term action and not a long term action to re-draft the constitution before May 2022. Members were informed that there is one being done at an all Wales level and when the council receives that, they will re-draft their constitution in the current format to make it more accessible in relevant sections; not to re-write the constitution. Schemes of delegation and terms of reference will be in different sections.

As it is a legal document that the council decision making functions are listed within, there is not much the council can do about its simplicity under new legislation but the council will bring in a 10 page summary of it with links to specific parts.

The Head of Service confirmed they are not suggesting that it goes to a committee beforehand, but more of reporting back to a committee about the numbers received and how many responded to.

·         Councillor M. Evans queried with regard to petitions; if a report could be submitted on how many petitions come in and if they have been responded to. The Committee agreed that Members should be aware of how these are logged with Newport City Council.

The Head of Law and Regulation advised Members that instead of an instant decision; the officers can bring more options to them on how that could work in January. The annual reports could be for the Democratic Services Committee or another way of doing it could be service areas to pick up petitions as part of their service plan. An operational reporting plan is also another alternative.

Agreed:

The Committee confirmed they would be happy to make an informed decision in January.