Agenda and draft minutes

RESOLVED: Councillor Long was appointed Chair for the meeting.

RESOLVED: Councillor Collop was appointed Vice Chair for the meeting.

Councillors Everett and Rose.

There were none.

RESOLVED: The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

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The Monitoring Officer presented the findings of the Scrutiny Governance Review, outlining the results of the LGA Peer Review, drivers for change, benchmarking with other Councils and the four options for potential restructuring.

The Chair thanked the Monitoring Officer for the report and invited questions and comments from the Joint Panel Members, as summarised below.

Councillor Bearshaw commented that when he was Chair of the Regeneration and Development Panel he had found the regular meetings with other Panel Chairs really useful in terms of co-ordinating Work Programmes.  He also noted that some meetings had been cancelled due to lack of agenda items and the importance of bringing items to the Panels early so that the Panel could assist with the development of Policy.

Councillor Kemp commented that the existing structure should remain as the Borough was a large diverse area which needed adequate representation.  One Panel would be overloaded.  Councillor Kemp also commented that meetings should not be moved to the day time and that the names of the two proposed Panels needed further consideration.

Councillor Sayers commented that the current structure wasn’t the problem, the scrutiny function was just underused therefore culture and resources should be looked at for improvement.

Councillor Bone acknowledged that this review had commenced before Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) had been announced and now wasn’t the time to be changing structures.

Councillor Ware acknowledged the rationale and objectives and commented that training for Councillors was important.

Councillor Ratcliffe supported maintaining the status quo, but acknowledged that improvements were needed with regard to training and support for Members.  She also commented that a lot of Councillors had stood for election on the understanding that Council meetings took place in the evening and she did not want this to change.

Councillor Parish referred to the LGA Peer Review, benchmarking and that structures should not limit the amount of Councillors that could be involved in scrutiny.

Councillor Kunes referred to the proposed names of the Panels in the two Panel option and commented that Environment had been missed, but this was a high priority.

Councillor Devulapalli agreed that Scrutiny needed improving and the three Panel model should remain, with improvements to be made to their remit and functions.

Councillor Jones and Bhondi both commented that with LGR looming now was not the time to restructure the Panels.

Councillor Heneghan did not feel that reducing the amount of Panels would improve Scrutiny and could make it feel rushed as there would be fewer meetings.

Councillor Blunt commented that instead of changing the structure, improvements to the current structures should be implemented, for example better work programming and training for Members.

The Chief Executive felt that the current Panel Work Programmes were currently driven by the Cabinet Agenda and the purpose of the restructure was to get the Panels to focus on high impact strategic items that made a difference and added value.  She also commented that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To be confirmed.

To be confirmed as necessary.