Agenda item

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The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained that it was a government requirement of the Borough Council, in its role as Accountable Body for the King’s Lynn Town Deal to ensure there was an appropriate local assurance process in place to oversee the delivery of approved projects in line with the approved Business Cases.  It was noted that the report sought approval to update the Local Assurance Framework to reflect the latest government guidance for the implementation phase of the Town Deal for King’s Lynn.

In conclusion, the Monitoring Officer explained that the LAF was critical to manage the Towns Fund investment to ensure the appropriate reporting, monitoring and governance arrangements were in place to manage the risks, spend and delivery of the programme.

It was noted that Councillors Middleton and Blunt were the Council appointed representatives on the Town Board.

The Chair thanked the Monitoring Officer for the report and invited questions from the Panel.

The Monitoring Officer responded to questions in relation to:

·             The reasons why it was considered that the report was not a key decision.

·             Town Deal Delivery Phase and diagram at Appendix 1, page 65 of the Agenda – structure to be put in place to satisfy Government criteria.

·             Programme Management – diagram on page 56 of the Agenda.

·             Town Deal Programme Board.

·             Regular Project Highlight Reports and published for project boards included the Member Major Projects Board.

·             Scrutiny process – Scrutiny Panels would be updated during the project delivery at key stages of projects and if there was a significant change a report would be brought to Cabinet and the Scrutiny Panels could choose to include the item on their work programme.

Following further comments and questions from the Panel, the Monitoring Officer explained that the Town Deal Board (TDB) projects were now into the delivery phase and the future role of the TDB would be to provide an oversight of the projects.

The Portfolio Holder for Development, Councillor Blunt provided an overview of the role of the TDB going forward and that the Government criteria had to be adhered to in order to receive the £25m funding.

The Regeneration Programmes Manager concurred with the comments made by the Portfolio Holder for Development and the Monitoring Officer on the future role of the TDB and added that regular performance monitoring reports were available.

Following a comment from Councillor Morley relating to the Guildhall, the Monitoring Officer advised that this would be subject to a separate report and would be a key decision.

The Executive Director, Place explained that projects were being closely monitored and officers were working to ensure there were clear processes going forward.

Councillor Morley proposed that the report should be a key decision but there was no seconder to support the proposal.

Councillor Morley voted against the recommendation set out below.

RESOLVED:  The Panel supported the recommendation to Cabinet as set out below:

That Cabinet approve the updated King’s Lynn Town Deal Local Assurance Framework (Appendix 1).