1 Electoral Review of Nottinghamshire County
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ELECTORAL REVIEW OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL - APPENDIX 1 Submission by Nottinghamshire County Council on Council Size Governance and Decision Making – How does the Council manage its business and take decisions across its full range of responsibilities? Leadership 1.1 What kind of Governance The Council operated Executive governance arrangements with a arrangements are in place for the Leader/Cabinet model from 2001-2012. In 2012, and in response to the Authority? provisions of the Localism Act 2011, the Council reviewed its governance arrangements and, for the reasons set out below, decided that a move to a modern Committee system was appropriate. It was recognised that local government in general had become more transparent and accountable in the years since the Council had last operated a Committee system. The current committee system was designed to take account of lessons learned from previous governance arrangements enabling an agile and streamlined system of decision-making. After thorough consideration and public consultation on the proposal (referred to below), the Council changed its governance arrangements effective from 17th May 2012. The reasons for the change as set out in the report to Council were that this is the most democratic form of governance enabling all Councillors to be involved in decision making, gain experience of a wide range of Council functions and shape the policy of the Council. In addition, Committees, rather than individual Councillors, make decisions ensuring greater transparency as reports are publically available prior to decisions being made, meetings are held in public and it is clear who is making decisions. As indicated the proposal was subject to public consultation, which showed 1 general support as it was felt that the change gave Councillors more influence and better access to information and, thus, greater ability to respond to constituents’ needs. There were some concerns that scrutiny would be impaired and that there should be no additional costs arising. The scrutiny aspect is discussed in section 2 below. In terms of costs, the overall cost of Councillors’ Allowances did not rise and has subsequently decreased since the introduction of the arrangements. As indicated in the Council’s summary case, Boundary Reviews are often the catalyst for wider governance reviews. As demonstrated above, the Council has already undertaken such a review. When the new governance arrangements were introduced, six monthly reviews were agreed to ensure that the requirement for effective and responsive decision making was monitored. These reviews have confirmed that as well as more Councillors being involved in decision making and policy formation than was the case under Executive arrangements, there have been no inherent delays in decision making. The opportunity was also taken to review reporting arrangements to ensure more consistent reporting across the Council on such issues as the work of outside bodies and service performance. The status and frequency of Committees was reviewed to ensure business needs were being met. As a result some changes were made to meeting cycles to better reflect workflow. Each Committee is required to operate a twelve month rolling work programme which is reviewed at every meeting Such work programmes have increased transparency and accountability, enabling the public to highlight issues to their local Councillor and request representations to be made at Committee when items are considered. The County Council at its Annual Meeting in May 2014 approved a revised Committee structure, the details of which are set out in the attached Annex A. 2 1.2 How many portfolios are there? As detailed above, the Council now operates a Committee system, details of the Committee structure are attached at Annex A. 1.3 Describe how a portfolio holder There are no portfolio holders as the Council operates a Committee system. carries out his/her work on a day to The equivalent of a portfolio holder is a Committee Chairman’s role and this day basis typically involves five days a week work. Committee Chairmen act as spokespersons and main point of contact for their Committee’s area of business and are required to answer questions at Council meetings about the Committee’s activities. Chairmen are required to regularly attend meetings and briefings and undertake related work. It should be noted that some of the Committee Chairmen are appointed from the Opposition Groups. For each Committee’s area of activity, Opposition Spokespersons are also appointed by their relevant group. These roles increase the relevant Councillors’ workload as they are required to attend briefings and meetings in order to perform this role. 1.4 To what extent are decisions Decisions are made by Committees. Whilst there are some powers delegated to delegated to portfolio holders or are officers this is only for day to day operational decisions. Details of those most decisions taken by the full operational decisions are reported regularly to Committee. It is open to a Executive? What is the volume of Committee to require that such decisions are in future made by Committee if decisions taken? How many Councillors feel that this would provide more transparency and better decisions are taken by officers? governance. 1.5 Do Executive (or other) Councillors A significant number of Councillors (including the Political Group Leaders and serve on other decision making Committee Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen) are involved in other decision making partnerships, sub-regional or bodies both formal and informal. These are included in the Council’s list of national bodies? Outside Bodies and include County Councils Network, East Midlands Councils, the D2N2 Local Area Partnership, Local Government Association and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships. A complete list of the Outside Bodies which the Council is formally represented on is attached as Annex B. 3 1.6 Is the role of the Executive Without doubt, the role of Committee Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen and Opposition Councillor considered to be full Spokespersons equates to the equivalent of an average full-time working week time? and a number of Councillors work in excess of such hours. Regulatory 1.7 How does the Council discharge its The Council discharges all its functions by Committee but in respect of what are regulation functions? How many described as regulatory functions under executive arrangements these functions Councillors are involved in are discharged through the following:- committees? Planning & Licensing Committee There are 11 Councillors on this Committee. Audit Committee There are 9 Councillors on this Committee which is chaired by an Opposition Councillor. Pensions Fund Committee, Pensions Investment Sub-Committee and Pensions Sub-Committee There are 9 County Council Councillors on in these Committees. The Sub- Committees also have City Councillor, Nottinghamshire Local Authorities Association, Trade Union and Scheduled Bodies representatives. Conduct Committee : There are 5 Councillors on this Committee. The terms of reference of these various bodies are included in Annex C. 1.8 Describe the arrangements for the A number of decisions on planning applications are made by planning officers delegation of decisions in respect of under powers delegated to the Corporate Director for Policy, Planning and regulatory functions? To what Corporate Services. Planning officers are authorised to determine all 4 extent are decisions delegated to applications with the following exceptions: officers? development involving a site area greater than 15 hectares or extraction/input in excess of 30,000 tonnes per annum or new development with a floor space in excess of 10,000sqm those involving a departure from the Development Plan those accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment those which have financial implications for the County, such as those which have an accompanying Planning obligation/S106 agreement those which have received objections from the District or Parish Council or local Councillor those which have been referred to Committee by a local Councillor those which are recommended for refusal unless the refusal is on the grounds of insufficient information those which have received significant* objections, within the statutory consultation period or other such period as agreed with the County Planning Authority, from consultees or neighbouring occupiers (* for clarification, 'significant' objections requiring referral must i) raise material planning consideration, ii) be irresolvable by amendment to the scheme or imposition of planning conditions, iii) involve more than three objections from separate properties) those which are submitted by Policy, Planning and Corporate Services those which raise issues of regional or national importance those involving the determination of new conditions for minerals sites and those involving the making and serving of orders for revocation, etc where compensation is likely to become payable. All the above applications are reported to the Planning & Licensing for decision. 1.9 Is committee Councillorship Standing. standing or rotating? 5 1.10 Are meetings ad hoc, frequent The Council’s schedule of meetings is agreed following consultation with and/or area based? How are the relevant Councillors and circulated in advance. As previously mentioned, the Chairs allocated? frequency of meetings has been reviewed as part of the ongoing review of governance arrangements. The frequency of the various Committees ranges