All councillors to be asked to come up with ideas for new Member Champion roles

At a meeting of the council’s Democratic Services committee on September 2 councillors received a report on the role, responsibilities, governance and support for Member Champions.

Discussion centred on a number of options to finalise the process of how they are appointed.

Conservative Councillor Pete Lewington believed that all scrutiny committee chairs should also be included in the appointment process alongside the council leader, council chairman and chairman of Democratic Services.

This is because Cllr Lewington believed that Member Champions might be asked have “input” into policy that would be looked at by scrutiny committee.

But Liberal Democrat Councillor Claire Hill believed that this would see “too many cooks” involved in the appointment process.

Committee chairman Powys Independents Councillor Graham Breeze said: “There’s a danger of us overcomplicating this if we’re not careful and have half the council involved.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Danny Bebb suggested simplifying the proposal by having just the leader, chairman of council and relevant cabinet member sift through any multiple expressions of interest from councillors wanting the role.

They would put a recommendation in front of full council which would need to be voted on and if agreed the Member Champion would hold the post for a council term.

This was eventually agreed by the committee.

The next option that the committee needed to consider is the actual member champion roles.

The current Member Champions are Powys Independent councillors, Cllr Joy Jones – Anti-Poverty champion, Cllr Ange Williams – Disability champion and deputy council leader, Labour’s Matthew Dorrance, Armed Forces champion.

But there is no guarantee that the trio will continue in these roles.

With a “blank sheet of paper” to establish new roles Cllr Breeze said that to be “fair” all three would need to put their names forward again for the role.

Cllr Hill said: “Member champions are supposed to represent the views of minority and underrepresented parts of our society across council business which will impact on different topics like housing,

“In that regard I’m not sure it’s for this committee in isolation to consider that.”

She explained that the three current roles were a “legacy of a previous administration” and as this was a fresh start it seemed apt to ask all councillors who they think need to be “more represented” at the council.

Cllr Breeze asked if this is possible?

Head of legal services and monitoring officer. Clive Pinney said: “We can ask members and come back to the committee with what’s been suggested.”

The committee agreed that this should be done, and councillors’ feedback is expected to be discussed at their next meeting in November.

Any recommendations from the committee will eventually be put to a full council meeting for a decision.

The review follows a move to scrap Member Champions being rejected by councillors in July,

Back in April the Democratic Services committee decided to recommend to council that the role be scrapped.

The controversial move was agreed on the casting vote of the former committee chairman, Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Elwyn Vaughan.

With a new committee chairman appointed at the council’s annual meeting in May, Cllr Breeze asked councillors in July to reject the committee’s controversial recommendation and pass the matter back to the Democratic Services committee for further deliberation.