Agenda and minutes

Venue: Assembly Room, Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King's Lynn PE30 5DQ. View directions

Contact: Sam Winter, Democratic Services Manager 616327 

Items
No. Item

C:82

PRAYERS

Minutes:

Prayers were led by Rev Canon Ling

C:83

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

 

 

Minutes:

The Mayor, Councillor Daubney had declared an interest in the item and so was not present at the meeting.

C:84

MAYOR'S COMMUNICATIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

To receive Mayor’s communications and announcements.

 

Minutes:

None

C:85

URGENT BUSINESS

To receive any items of business which in the opinion of the Mayor are urgent. 

 

Minutes:

None

C:86

NOTICE OF MOTION

Under Standing Order 4.4, Councillor Moriarty has proposed the special Council meeting, in order to consider the notice of motion below. This was supported by Councillors Joyce, Squire, Bird, McGuinness and Parish. 

 

To consider the following Notice of Motion (3/19), submitted by Councillor J Moriarty:

 

“That this Council establish an independent inquiry into the partnership with Norfolk and Waveney Enterprise Services (NWES) and its subsidiaries and associated companies and those with common shareholders or directors, regarding the award of and administration of the KLIC project and all aspects of its (their) financial relationship with the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.

 

To ensure the impartiality and independence of the Inquiry, the Chair and personnel of such an Inquiry to be chosen by an outside body, such as the Local Government Association (LGA) and consideration be given to requesting further assistance from such an outside body if required.

 

This enables the proposed Audit Committee Task Group to focus on the future composition and operation of the Major Projects Board, the Major Projects Progess overview and other lessons learnt from the ‘KLIC Lessons Learnt Review’.

 

The independent Inquiry will have access to all council documents associated with NWES, subsidiaries etc as detailed above.”

 

Minutes:

Under Standing Order 4.4, Councillor Moriarty had proposed the special Council meeting, in order to consider the notice of motion below. This was supported by Councillors Joyce, Squire, Bird, McGuinness and Parish. 

 

The Notice of Motion proposed was accepted as under Standing Order 19.1 Councillor Moriarty had accrued the support of the required number of members present at the Council meeting when it was originally considered – 24 January 2019 (1/3 of the members present when it was considered - 16 members).

 

Those were Councillors:

 

J Moriarty

C Joyce

C Manning

I Devereux

R Bird

M Howland

G McGuinness

D Pope

S Buck

S Collop

J Collop

T Parish

G Howman

M Wilkinson

S Squire

T Tilbrook

P Beal

A Tyler

 

The Deputy Mayor invited Councillor J Moriarty to propose the following Notice of Motion (3/19):

 

“That this Council establish an independent inquiry into the partnership with Norfolk and Waveney Enterprise Services (NWES) and its subsidiaries and associated companies and those with common shareholders or directors, regarding the award of and administration of the KLIC project and all aspects of its (their) financial relationship with the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.

 

To ensure the impartiality and independence of the Inquiry, the Chair and personnel of such an Inquiry to be chosen by an outside body, such as the Local Government Association (LGA) and consideration be given to requesting further assistance from such an outside body if required.

 

This enables the proposed Audit Committee Task Group to focus on the future composition and operation of the Major Projects Board, the Major Projects Progress overview and other lessons learnt from the ‘KLIC Lessons Learnt Review’.

 

The independent Inquiry will have access to all council documents associated with NWES, subsidiaries etc as detailed above.”

 

Councillor Moriarty proposed the Notice of Motion.  This was seconded by Councillor Long who reserved his right to speak.

 

The Monitoring Officer reminded members of the redacted and unredacted version of the Audit report and that only information available to the public in the redacted version could be debated in open session.  She reminded members that any assertions made by members about individuals needed to be factually based and evidenced.

 

The Deputy Mayor asked if there were any amendments proposed to be made to the Motion.  There were none.

 

Councillor Howman supported the motion and likened it to an employee investigation where they didn’t have any control over the investigation, he felt that the Council should not carry out its own investigation and not try to hide or cover anything up. If it showed anything the Council could consider this later.

 

Councillor McGuinness in supporting the Motion commented that it was by repeated asking by some councillors that this had come about.  He commented that in reading the report it appeared that the costs became unclear and were added to over time.  He felt that the costs of a project should be set out at the beginning of the project so the full costs were known.  ...  view the full minutes text for item C:86