Purpose

To recommend to Council the adoption of
changes to the Council’s Committee Structure.

Content

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.