Agenda and draft minutes

RESOLVED: That Councillor Mrs S Collop be appointed Vice-Chairman for the meeting.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Gourlay and Kittow.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee held on 17 September 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider any business, which by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

There was no Chairman’s correspondence.

To receive comments, and recommendations from other Council bodies, and any responses subsequent to recommendations, which this Committee has previously made.  Some of the relevant Council bodies may meet after dispatch of the agenda.

None.

None.

Cabinet Decisions

Items from the Cabinet agenda from 6^th October 2015 to be scrutinised are as follows:

The item had been brought to the Committee at the request of the Chairman Councillor Collop.

The Chairman, Councillor Collop referred to the Cabinet minutes of 6 October 2015 and the two recommendations put forward by Councillors Lord Howard and A Lawrence and asked the Deputy Leader if the proposed amendments were acceptable and why they had been put forward.

In response the Deputy Leader explained that Councillor Lawrence had commented that as some other authorities might have financial problems, they might struggle to carry out their obligations, and potentially stop the rest.  Councillor Lawrence had expressed reservations about the word “endorse” in recommendation 2 at this stage in the proceedings and suggested that the recommendation should confirm continued work on the proposal which was agreed by Cabinet.

With regard to the comments made by Councillor Lord Howard that the paper was broad and that a final decision could not be taken until all of the detail was available.  Councillor Lord Howard proposed an amendment to recommendation 5 to show that the decision being taken “does not extend to conceding any existing Borough Council functions or powers without separate and prior authorisation by this Cabinet and Council.”  The amendment had been agreed by Cabinet.

The Deputy Leader advised Members that the above two amendments had provided useful clarification.

In response to comments from the Chairman, Councillor Collop on the amendments to the recommendations and how the other 16 Councils would look at how this Borough Council moved forward, the Deputy Leader explained that this was a difficult to judge, but it was fair to say that all authorities would have concern regarding the lack of detail and the timetable.  It was highlighted that there was presently no clear mandate.

In response to questions from the Chairman, Councillor Collop as to how/when devolution could be expected to happen, the Chief Executive provided an overview of the process and an update of the current position as set out below:

·         The expression of interest had been submitted to Government on 4 September 2015.  The initial submissions for both Norfolk and Suffolk had been well received in Government and civil servants had made it very clear that going forward these two proposals would be greatly strengthened if they could be combined into a single ‘devolution deal.’

·         4 November 2015 – Leaders would present proposal to Lord Hesseltine.  If the proposal was given the go ahead there would be a series of intense negotiations over a 3 week period to reach agreement on each theme which would then be pulled together and a formal agreement reached with DCLG.  It was highlighted that there were only a small number of two-tier rural areas left in the forerunners.

·         If agreement reached by all 16 authorities then each Council would be required to hold a Special Council meeting late November/early December 2015.

·         Next phase would be a full governance review.

·         Daily conference calls were scheduled relating to each work stream.

·         An overview of how the finance had evolved.  ...  view the full minutes text for item CSC:56a

The next meeting of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to take place on Thursday19th November 2015 at 6.00pm in the Committee Suite, King’s Court, Chapel Street, King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

The next scheduled meeting was 19 November 2015.