Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

At the Chairman’s request, Item 8 was considered directly after the public minutes of the last meeting (Item 3).

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk relative to the appointment of a Verderer of Epping Forest (South).

The Town Clerk explained that, at the request of the Chairman and the Superintendent of Epping Forest, the selected candidate had been invited to attend today’s meeting should his appointment be formalised. He had also signed a non-disclosure agreement in order to enable him to access the non-public papers for today’s meeting.

The Town Clerk went on to explain that, following legal advice on this matter, and confirmation of the Committee’s ability to make these appointments autonomously, the subsequent Court report would suggest that, in future, Verderer appointments would be put before the Court of Common Council for information only as opposed to for ratification which had previously always been the case.

A Verderer commented that the Epping Forest Act was explicitly clear on the fact that this Committee could make these kinds of decisions independently of the Court of Common Council. He requested that this relationship therefore be clarified as soon as possible. The Verderer went on to refer to the appointment process itself stating that he had been very disappointed with the management of this and the ability of Committee staff to ensure that he received all of the necessary information in a timely fashion.

The Chairman agreed that the receipt of timely information was essential. He stated that he believed that delays on this occasion had been due to the introduction of rules around GDPR and the inability to send documents to external email addresses. He hope that this matter had now been resolved.

RESOLVED – That, Members endorse the selection of Nicholas Munday as Epping Forest Verderer (South) for onward approval by the Court of Common Council.

Verderer Munday was invited to join the meeting at this point.