Councillor Brown declared that he had met the Subject Member at meetings of the Solihull Area Committee but had no connection or contact with him outside those meetings.

RESOLVED:

That Mr David Mattocks be appointed Chairman of the Panel for this hearing.

The Subject member was not present at the Hearing.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that she had received communications from the Subject member, including information about circumstances relating to his health.

RESOLVED:

That the public and press be excluded from the meeting on the grounds that discussion of this item would involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

In private session the Deputy Monitoring Officer then advised the Panel of the information provided by the Subject member in relation to his health.

She also advised that the Subject member had stated that he believed the Panel members were biased against him, although no reason had been given for this belief.

The Panel discussed the advice given by the Deputy Monitoring Officer and then reconvened in public to announce their decision.

The Chairman of the Panel made the following announcement:

The fairness of the Hearing procedure is of paramount importance and the Hearing Panel takes the allegation of bias very seriously.  The Panel wish to know the reason for the allegation and to be able to consider it fully before the hearing proceeds further.   The Panel has also noted the information provided by the Subject member in relation to his health and for these two reasons has decided to adjourn the Hearing to a date during October 2011.  The Subject member will be asked to provide a statement to the Monitoring Officer by 3rd October 2011, setting out his allegation of bias and the reasons for it. 

The meeting adjourned at 10.35am to reconvene on a date to be set, in October 2011.

Consideration of this item was deferred until the Hearing reconvenes on a date to be set, in October 2011.