Decision details

The recommendations of the report proposing significant changes to the Council’s Committee structure were agreed as follows:

(i)      from 20 May 2024, the current Overview and Scrutiny Committee be disbanded and replaced by three, directorate specific Committees, each with responsibility for overview and scrutiny, namely the Resource and Finance Scrutiny Committee, the Communities and Housing Scrutiny Committee and the Environment and Place Scrutiny Committee;

(ii)     Officers be instructed to draw up a Committee Responsibility Protocol for consideration at Council in the new Municipal Year;

(iii)     from 20 May 2024, the Standards and Audit Committee be renamed the Audit and Governance Committee;

(iv)    annual training on audit and governance be made mandatory for the Members of the Committee;

(v)     the Audit and Governance Committee completes a review of its function by the end of each Municipal Year;

(vi)    an Employment Committee be constituted, to come into effect from 20 May 2024;

(vii)    Officers be instructed to draw up a protocol for the Group of Chairs for consideration at Council in the New Municipal Year;

(viii)   Officers be instructed to draw up a policy framework for decision-making for submission to Council in the new Municipal Year;

(ix)    from 20 May 2024, the Appeals Committee be disbanded;

(x)     the revised calendar of meetings for 2024/25, as set out in Annex 2 of the report, be adopted;

(xi)    the Working Groups and Panels as set out in Section 28 of the Annex 1 be disbanded from 1 May 2024;

(xii)    authority be delegated to the Strategic Director for Place, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning, to determine any applications for Community Infrastructure Levy funding below £10,000;

(xiii)   any outstanding pieces of work from the old Committee Structure, including Working Groups, be brought forward under the new arrangements;

(xiv)   a limit of four be placed on the total number of active task and finish groups operating at the Council at any one time unless exceptional circumstances exist as deemed by the Group of Chairs in consultation with Statutory Officers;

(xv)   the Monitoring Officer be instructed to make consequential amendments to the Constitution, the revised Constitution to be presented to Council on 20 May 2024; and

(xvi)   a joint Member-Officer review of the new structure be undertaken at the beginning of 2025, the outcomes to be reported to Council.