‘Extraordinary’ meeting of Whitby Town Council to discuss changes to committee membership

The extraordinary full meeting of the town council, scheduled for Tuesday, August 15, will see councillors discuss three motions, all of which were proposed by Coun Alf Abbott and seconded by Coun Chris Riddolls.

If approved at the full meeting, the motions would see changes to the timescale of the publication of the minutes of council meetings, and the composition of committees, and would allow for decisions to be ‘called in’ by councillors.

One of the motions put forward by Coun Abbott proposes a change to the timetable for publishing the minutes of past meetings.

It states: “Minutes to meetings need to be published within five days of a meeting.”

Another motion proposes that councillors should be allowed to “call in decisions” so that “matters can be discussed and perhaps referred back to committee for further work on any topic that councillors as a group vote on during a full council meeting”.

If approved, it would allow two councillors to “reserve a decision to full council” where that decision would otherwise have been taken by a committee.

The motion on committee composition proposes the addition of new standing orders, stating: “Each of the 19 councillors is expected to serve as a voting member on at least two of finance policy and general purposes, human resources, Pannett Art Gallery, planning, harbour, and town development & improvement committees.

“The seven members of the Pannett Art Gallery Committee, together with the mayor and deputy mayor, will form the nine voting council members of the joint management committee (together with the six members appointed by the Whitby Literary & Philosophical Society).”

The extraordinary meeting of Whitby Town Council will be held at 2pm in the Normanby Room of Whitby Museum on Tuesday, August 15.

Council bylaws state that an extraordinary full meeting of the town council can be called by the chair, in consultation with the town clerk.