Purpose

The Council is required to appoint a Monitoring Officer (Section 5 Local Government & Housing Act 1989). The Council appointed the Monitoring Officer, Donna Marks as Interim Monitoring Officer from the 21st September 2026 until 31st July 2027.

Section 5(7) of the 1989 Act provides that the duties of a monitoring officer must be performed by her/him personally or, where s/he is unable to act owing to absence or illness, personally by such member of her/his staff as s/he has for the time being nominated as her Deputies for the purposes of this section.

Donna Marks has been seconded to the role of Head of Legal & Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer role, from her substantive post as Head of Legal Service & Deputy Monitoring Officer and her post is not being backfilled.

It has been agreed with the Executive Director of Resources Simon Parker to appoint the Service Managers in Legal -
Carrie-Ann Evans and Rachel O'Sullivan, to undertake jointly, additional duties to cover for Donna Marks's substantive role as Head of Legal Services and also act jointly as interim Deputy Monitoring Officer.

There is no legislative restriction preventing an authority from appointing multiple deputies.

They will undertake this role from 1st October 2026 until 31st July 2027 .

Decision

To appoint Carrie-Ann Evans and Rachel O'Sullivan, to undertake jointly, the interim role of Deputy Monitoring Officer from 1st October 2026 until 31st July 2027.

Alternative options considered

Option 1 - Not appointing a deputy exposes the Council to unnecessary risk in the event of absence or illness of the Monitoring Officer.
Option 2 -
Option 3 -