This week in Gloucestershire:

• The County Council meeting included the election of the chair and vice-chair, and the appointment of council committees.
• The council was also scheduled to elect the Leader of Council for a four-year term.
• The council was scheduled to consider the appointment of independent persons¹ and political assistants².

County Council - Wednesday 21 May 2025

The Gloucestershire County Council meeting on Wednesday 21 May 2025 included the election of the chair and vice-chair, the appointment of council committees and independent persons, and the potential appointment of political assistants. The Leader of Council was also scheduled to be elected for a four-year term, and they were expected to announce their cabinet membership.

Election of Chair and Vice Chair

The meeting was scheduled to include the election of the Chair and Vice Chair of the Council for the 2025/26 civic year. Following the elections, the new Chair and Vice-Chair would make their Declaration of Acceptance of Office and sign the Roll of Members.

Leader of Council and Cabinet Membership

The council was scheduled to elect the Leader of Council for a four-year term. Following the election, the Leader of the Council was expected to announce their appointments to the Cabinet.

Council Committees

The council was scheduled to consider a report from the Head of Democratic Services regarding council committees.

Appointment of Independent Persons

The council was scheduled to consider a report from the Director of Policy, Performance and Governance and Monitoring Officer regarding the appointment of independent persons.

The report recommended that the council extend the appointment of Bernard Barton-Ancliffe and Stephen Pearman as its Independent Persons for a further four-year term.

The Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities to have arrangements in place to promote and maintain high standards of conduct among its councillors, including handling allegations of misconduct. Independent Persons assist and advise on complaints, both to the Monitoring Officer and to the Hearings Panel, ensuring complaints are handled fairly and consistently.

Bernard Barton-Ancliffe, a resident of Tewkesbury District, is a former parish councillor and Chair of Gloucestershire Association of Parish and Town Councils, retired from a career in the Armed Forces and as a Civil Servant. Stephen Pearman, who lives in Gloucester City, is a self-employed ICT consultant and former Chair of Governors at a local primary school.

The report noted that the Audit & Governance Committee attempted to increase the number of Independent Persons to three in September 2024, but the recruitment process did not result in any applicants.

Political Assistants

The council was scheduled to consider a report from the Head of Democratic Services regarding the appointment of political assistants.

Political Assistants have been employed by the council since 2002 and work directly for the political groups. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) issued non-statutory guidance on 11 October 2021 for local authorities in England who are considering employing political assistants. The council has evaluated the Political Assistant position at Grade 9, with a salary range of £39,186 to £44,428.

Legislation restricts Political Assistants to the three largest political groups, and only political groups with at least 10% of the total number of seats on the council qualify for this support, which is at least six members.

The Gloucestershire County Council held 4 meetings in the last week: the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 16 July 2024, the Environment Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday 17 July 2024, the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday 18 July 2024 and the Fire and Rescue Scrutiny Committee on Friday 19 July 2024. Transcripts were not published for any of these meetings, so it is not possible to know what was discussed.

Scrutiny committees are responsible for examining decisions made by the council, and for holding the Cabinet to account. There are 8 scrutiny committees, each of which has responsibility for a particular area such as:

• Adults' Social Care & Health
• Children & Families
• Environment
• Fire & Rescue
• Overview of Council
• Health Overview & Scrutiny
• Corporate Performance & Challenge
• Growth & Regeneration

Each committee is made up of between 8 and 15 Councillors. Scrutiny committees are politically balanced, meaning that the number of councillors from each political party reflects the overall make-up of the council.

You can find out more about the work of scrutiny committees on the Gloucestershire County Council website.

The County Council met on Wednesday 26 June 2024. The Council voted down a motion to condemn the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, as well as an amended motion that removed the request for the Government to apologise for the forced adoptions of children of unmarried women.

The meeting began with a motion regarding road safety in Gloucestershire. The motion, as originally proposed by Councillor Roger Whyborn, was to establish a task and finish group that would scrutinise the effectiveness of the Road Safety Policy and the resourcing of that policy. The motion was amended to replace the task and finish group with a cross-party panel that would report to the Cabinet Member, rather than a scrutiny committee. This amendment was opposed by several Councillors, but was eventually passed.

The next item on the agenda was a motion regarding the forced adoption of children of unmarried women. The original motion, proposed by Councillor John Bloxsom, called for the leader of the Council to write to the Prime Minister and Gloucestershire’s MPs to demand an apology for the policy. It also requested that the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee investigate what steps the Council could take to support those affected.

An amendment, proposed by Councillor Stephen Davies, removed the request for an apology, but retained the request for the government to take steps to support the victims of the policy. This amendment was passed after a lengthy debate.

The Council then debated a motion to condemn the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. The motion, proposed by Councillor David Drew, called on the leader of the Council to refuse to implement parts of the act that relate to Gloucestershire Council employees. After a debate in which Conservative Councillors largely spoke in favour of the legislation, the motion was defeated.

I'm not a believer in apologies from people who had no personal responsibility for what happened - Councillor Stephen Davies

Next, Councillor Stephen Davies, in his capacity as Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding and Early Years, presented the Corporate Parenting Report. The report generated discussion about the number of children in care in Gloucestershire receiving suspensions.

The final item on the agenda was the presentation of the Gloucestershire Pension Fund Annual Report 2022/2023, which was presented by Councillor Lynden Stowe in his capacity as Chair of the Pension Committee. During the discussion of the report an unnamed Councillor who also sits on the Pension Committee disputed several of the committee's investment beliefs, which are published in the report. In particular, the Councillor mentioned the statement on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations which reads The Committee believes that environmental, social and governance considerations should be taken into account when making investment decisions where they do not materially impact on financial returns or risk. The unnamed Councillor said that they refuted this statement, and that in their view ESG considerations were paramount. Councillor Stowe responded to this by saying that the report represented the committee's views as of the end of 2022, and that the committee might want to change those beliefs in the future.

The Traffic Regulation Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday 25 June 2024 was cancelled.