Hambleton District Council looks set use a special regulation for local authorities which are set to be scrapped to bestow four of its members, including its leader, with a rare honour.
It has been proposed Hambleton District councillors, including Tanfield member David Webster, Mark Robson, who represents Sowerby and Topcliffe, Morton on Swale member Brian Phillips and Hutton Rudby’s representative Bridget Fortune, should be granted the courtesy title honorary aldermen.
The awards are designed to recognise the councillors’ “outstanding contribution to the work of the council”.
If the recommendation is approved at a meeting of the full authority next Tuesday (October 18), when the district council is scrapped on March 31, the honorary alderman would become honorary alderman of the new unitary North Yorkshire Council.
As such, the move could see the long-serving district councillors have their name entered on to a roll of honour outside the new North Yorkshire Council’s council chamber at County Hall in Northallerton.
As aldermen of the new authority, Councillor Robson and Coun Phillips would be invited to attend North Yorkshire Council meetings as a non-participating guest and would have a seat reserved for them in the chamber.
They could also be invited to attend civic functions hosted by North Yorkshire Council, such as services, dinners, charity events.
However, rules stipulate that serving members of the unitary authority, such as councillors Webster and Fortune, will not be entitled to be addressed as alderman or to attend or take part in any civic ceremonies of that
council as an alderman.
An officer’s report to the meeting of the full authority states a working group of three elected members, convened at the request of the council’s leader Coun Robson, has recommended all four councillors be conferred with the title at a special meeting of council in the coming months at which a resolution must be passed by at least two-thirds of members.
The move comes three years after Geoff Ellis, who stood down from the council 32 years after being elected as member of Easingwold, said becoming the authority’s 22nd honorary alderman since the council was formed in 1974 was a “tremendous honour”.
Councils are normally only allowed to bestow the title on past members, who in the council’s opinion have rendered “eminent service” to the local authority, rather than to the community or other authorities.
Those nominated for the honour must have served at least five consecutive full terms, or a minimum of 20 years on the council or four consecutive full terms and served as chairman of at least two committees or been a member of the cabinet during that period.
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