Issue - meetings

The following Questions were received, and Members were advised that the following responses had been circulated prior to the meeting:

1.     Questions from Councillor James Upjohn – Report 'Change of Governance Arrangements'

(i)     Leader, should there be a public consultation on such a monumental and costly change to council workings?

Response

As stated in the report there is no legal requirement to carry out any consultation.  Some Councils have carried out consultations and/or referendums prior to changing but many have not.  It is a decision for Council to make on whether there should be a consultation prior to any change or not.

(ii)    We recently switched to pre-scrutiny, after a vote at full council, has this been implemented yet and if yes how effective is it?

Response

Yes, pre scrutiny has been implemented, a copy of the Overview & Scrutiny Annual Report for 2021/22 is included on the agenda for this meeting, for Members to consider.

(iii)  Is it a good idea to switch to a committee structure? Has any research been done on Hybrid Models?

Response

It is a matter for each Council to determine which governance model is the best for it.  As set out in the report there are considered to be benefits and disadvantages to each governance system and there is no universally accepted better model.  I am not aware of any research on hybrid models.

(iv)  The report at 7.6 refers to consultation proposed with key stake holders and the implementation of the new arrangements. For the consultation to be lawful and effective it must be carried out when the proposals are still at an informative stage. Can you confirm this has been done and if so where is the data.

Response

No, the consultation would be on the implementation not the decision whether to change the governance model if Council agreed with the recommendation of the Working Group.

2.     Questions from Councillor Rob Molloy – Report 'Change of Governance Arrangements'

I have several questions on the report into Change of Governance Arrangements that is in the Council papers for the meeting on October 12th.

(i)     The report states in Section 10 that there are "major implications" in terms of resources in any change to governance arrangements. In section 10.2 the report says that they are likely to be £50k to £100k in one off costs but there is no breakdown of how this is made up. 

Has a financial impact assessment been taken to validate this £50k to £100k range?

Response

The figure in the report is an estimate based on known likely costs such as legal support on the change of the constitution and on looking at the experience of other authorities which have gone through this process.  The actual figure will depend to a large extent on how the Council implements any resolution to change governance.

Is there a detailed breakdown that members can see to assure themselves and our residents that all one-off costs both internally and externally have been accurately considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40