Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Baguley, Bains, Graham MBE, Hutchison, Posnett MBE, Rhodes and Wright.

Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting.

Councillors Orson and Pearson declared a personal interest should any County Council matters be raised due to their roles as Leicestershire County Councillors.

The Leader of the Council to submit a report which asks the Council

(1)  to  consider and determine the Council’s governance arrangements;

(2)  to consider implementation and necessary transitional arrangements to support a change in governance arrangements; and

(3)   to consider updating and reviewing the constitution to meet the Council’s aspirations.

Councillor Orson, Leader of the Council,

(a)  presented a report on a review of the Council’s governance arrangements which requested the Council to

(i)    consider implementation and necessary transitional arrangements to support a change in governance arrangements;

(ii)  consider updating and reviewing the constitution to meet the Council’s aspirations;

(b)  noted that the comments of the Governance Committee, held on 20 November 2018, on the Council report were tabled at the meeting;

(c)  stated that

(i)        the Council had made some significant progress in the last year.  It had  opened itself up for external scrutiny through a Corporate Peer Challenge, refined its priorities and created a new Corporate Delivery Plan. It had adopted a Local Plan, entered new and improved service contracts for waste management and housing repairs and completed the multi-million pound renovation of Beckmill Court. This was an ambitious Council facing challenging times and the Council was not prepared to rest on its laurels. The Council had adopted a commercial strategy and wanted and needed to replace the funding lost from central government. The Council was  exploring the possibility of setting up a housing company both to generate additional income and to allow the Council to build more affordable homes for its residents. The Council was undertaking commercial development appraisals of all its key sites to find the right way to unlock their potential and maximise opportunities. The Council had undertaken a governance review because it recognised that to be more effective and be more commercial the Council had to make more timely decisions;

(ii)       whilst most other Councils previously moved to a Cabinet structure this Council had retained its committee system. Whilst this may have served the Council well in the past, as the Council had heard from the LGA in March the Council’s governance structures had become bloated and unwieldy.  In May the Council took immediate steps to improve the situation and removed a lot of unnecessary sub structures which was confusing accountability and making decision-making processes less clear. At the time the Council recognised this was only the first step and since then, as requested by this Council, the Governance Development Group had spent time reviewing alternative governance models to identify what was the right model for meeting Melton’s ambitions today;

(iii)      the group had spoken to a number of Councils operating different models and talked to stakeholders about their perceptions of how the Council did things. The group listened to residents through an online survey and  worked closely with officers to identify the right option to move the Council forward;

(iv)      against the various models a number of tests were applied to identify the right option for the Council. Whatever model the Council chose, its primary purpose had to be helping to deliver most effectively for its residents by achieving the following:

·       Clearer Accountability: Ensuring the public know who is responsible for what and members have more clearly defined roles

·       More Engagement: increasing the level of stakeholder and public involvement in policy development

·       Greater  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO42