Convenership
4.—(1) At its first meeting the authority shall appoint a convener and a deputy convener from the members of the authority and they shall hold office until the day of the next local authority election.
(2) The convener, or the deputy convener in the convener’s absence, shall preside at meetings of the authority.
(3) In the event that both the convener and deputy convener are absent from any meeting the members present shall appoint from their number a convener for that meeting.
(4) In the event that there are an equal number of votes cast at a meeting the convener presiding at that meeting shall have a casting vote as well as a deliberative vote.
(5) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (1), the convener and the deputy convener, shall each hold office for a period of one council term, and at the first meeting of the authority after a local authority election the authority shall appoint a convener and deputy convener.
(6) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (7), the convener and deputy convener may not hold office as such for more than two consecutive periods of office, but may otherwise be eligible for reappointment.
(7) A member appointed to the office of convener or deputy convener in terms of paragraphs (1) or (5) may, having held that office for two consecutive periods of office, be appointed as deputy convener, or convener, as the case may be, and may hold that office for a further period of two consecutive terms of office, provided that no member may hold the office of convener and deputy convener for more than four consecutive terms of office in total.
(8) In paragraph (5) “council term” means the period commencing on the day after the date of the first meeting of the relevant local authority after a local authority election and ending on the day of the next local authority election following that meeting.