Drafting local authority constitutions
Local authority governance experts Simon Goacher and Paul Feild examine the role of council constitutions in the effective governance of local authorities.
Recent financial disasters, at a range of councils, arising from failed investments and other schemes, have shone an unflattering light on the governance and management of local authorities. Underlying these problems are outdated or inadequate local authority constitutions and standing orders. Many of these are in urgent need of updating so local authorities deal effectively with issues.
- How important or relevant are council constitutions when resolving governance issues?
- How suitable are existing council constitutions to deal with common governance issues? Are they often a help or a hindrance?
- What is the process for amending or rewriting council constitutions and standing orders?
- How much scope do councils have to draw up bespoke constitutions relevant to their needs and situations?
Speakers
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Dr. Paul Feild
Paul is a solicitor in local government and been so for more than 31 years. He has been a deputy monitoring officer in various roles since 2000 for Barking and Dagenham LBC, Thurrock BC, the Essex Fire and Police Commissioner and East London Waste Authority. Paul has a LLB, a LLM in Tax, the Law Society's Diploma in Local Government Law and Administration, a BA in art history, a MA in management, a Master of Business Administration and in July 2015 he was awarded Doctor of Business Administration.
Paul's Doctorate theses was on the practitioner’s view of the Localism Act 2011 standards regime. This involved many face to face interviews with local authority Monitoring Officers and Heads of Law of district, county and unitary councils. He regularly writes comment on local government practice for the legal profession's online newspaper Local Government Lawyer.
Paul has handled the vast majority of complaints made against Members for Barking & Dagenham Council since the Complaints regimes began. He rarely resorts to counsel and does the matters in-house working with the Monitoring Officer. He is the lead for governance, finance and regeneration including advising on the Councils companies.
- Simon Goacher, Weightmans
Simon is an experienced local government lawyer and prior to joining Weightmans in February 2013 was a Head of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer at two large unitary authorities for the previous six years. Most recently he was Head of Legal and Democratic Services at Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council.
Simon has extensive experience at advising on local authority duties and powers and dealing with sensitive investigations. He has acted as the legal adviser to the full Council and Executive on arrange of matters including the legal framework relating to the appointment and dismissal of senior and statutory officers. He has also advised a number of authorities on reviewing and updating their constitutions and changing their governance models with associated constitution changes.
Since joining Weightmans Simon has advised a number of authorities on sensitive political issues including carrying out an independent review of a metropolitan authority’s arrangements for managing sensitive personal information and how such information had been disclosed to the press. This was completed to the satisfaction of the authority who praised Simon for his, “accessible, helpful and practical advice.
Simon is recognised by both Chambers and Legal 500 for his local government expertise.
