Issue - meetings

This report seeks to review the Council’s governance arrangements and identify any opportunities to amend or improve existing procedures.

As a result of recommendations from an LGA Peer Review the Borough Council had adopted a new governance structure in May 2022.  The report of the Chief Executive set out options to review these arrangements which had now been in place for 11 months.

A suggested focus for the next stage of the review was detailed in 1.2 of the report. Members would be invited to reflect on whether the issues identified by the Peer Review team had been addressed, what had worked well and whether there were opportunities for improvement.    Any amendments or suggested changes to the existing governance arrangements would be assessed in full as part of the final review.

Due to the upcoming local elections, the Committee felt that a review should be undertaken later in the year to enable any newly elected councillors to experience a meeting cycle before assessing arrangements.  Concern was expressed that the current governance arrangements didn’t reflect the reduction in councillors arising from the recent boundary review.  However, Members also welcomed the opportunity to identify whether improvements could be made to the Scrutiny Select Committees structure and remove potential duplications with the main Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Finally, it was felt that there should be further assessment on the format of Area Planning Committees and the review into governance arrangements offered opportunity for this to be revisited. 

RESOLVED:  That

(1)             Subject to:

(i)               being undertaken in late 2023/early 2024; and

(ii)              the format of Area Planning Committees being considered for further assessment

the approach to a Scrutiny Review, as set out in 1.2 of the report, be endorsed and further evaluation of the issues raised be undertaken.