A council which will disappear as part of local government reorganisation in North Yorkshire has agreed to press on with a move to honour four of its serving members before the authority is abolished.
A full meeting of Hambleton District Council heard while other district authorities in North Yorkshire were examining legal concerns over whether the honour can only be bestowed on former councillors, leading members of the Northallerton-based authority were “confident that it was following the correct process”.
Members approved a recommendation by a group of councillors that Tanfield member David Webster, Sowerby and Topcliffe councillor Mark Robson, Morton on Swale member Brian Phillips and Hutton Rudby’s representative Bridget Fortune, should be granted the courtesy title honorary aldermen.
The meeting heard an extraordinary meeting of the authority would be held in December to confer the title on the four councillors.
The awards are designed to recognise the councillors’ “outstanding contribution to the work of the council”.
An officer’s report to the meeting highlighted how the council had found Regulation 32 of the Local Government (Structural Changes) (Transitional Arrangements) (No 2) Regulations 2008 had enabled councils that are to be dissolved as a result of local government reorganisation to elect serving members as aldermen.
While the move would make the Hambleton councillors honorary alderman of the incoming North Yorkshire Council it remains unclear what privileges, other than to sit in the public gallery at full council meetings, the new authority will grant aldermen.
The Hambleton council meeting heard a senior officer advise members that there was a case to postpone making a decision on the issue.
The officer stated: “The reason being that a legal matter has been raised by other councils regarding the appointment of serving members on the new council as honorary aldermen.
“It’s been raised by the district councils because other district councils are also going through a similar process with the appointment of honorary aldermen and they are taking legal advice on this, so there is a case to hold the report, but I would point out to members this report is the start of a process.
“It is putting names forward which will go to a further meeting, a special meeting of council, for those names to be confirmed.”
The council’s portfolio holder for transformation and projects, Councillor Malcolm Taylor, said the “clock was ticking” before the district council ceased to exist and it was important to get the aldermen process started.
He said: “This is very important to us at Hambleton, we take our honorary aldermen very seriously. This is not an honour that we bestow without great research and we respect that process. It’s important to point out as a district authority we do still have sovereignty over our own decisions as long as council remains.”
Thirsk councillor Dave Elders told the meeting a potential for legal challenge was related to the councillors continuing to serve as elected members.
He said: “This council will cease to exist on March 31, if we wait until after that we won’t be able to propose any aldermen because we won’t be here. To me it’s common sense that we go through the process now.”
Be the first to comment