Agenda item

6.1

The lead signatory to the call-in was Councillor Ian Auckland and the co-signatories were Councillors Joe Otten, Roger Davison, Colin Ross and Andrew Sangar.

6.2

The Committee scrutinised the following decision of Cabinet, at its meeting held on 20 March 2013, to change the delegation for highways decisions and also a report of the Executive Director, Place submitted to that meeting.

6.3

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:-

(a)   adopts Option 1 within the report and recommends to the Leader that she amends her Scheme of Delegation to record the fact that decisions reserved to the Cabinet Highways Committee are also reserved to an Individual Cabinet Member and to reflect the proposals in Appendix A regarding increased officer delegations; and

(b) authorises the Director of Development Services, in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member and Director of Legal Services, to make the practical arrangements necessary to introduce the new executive transport and highways decision making arrangements following amendment of the Leader’s Scheme as proposed above.

6.4

Attending the meeting for this item were Councillor Leigh Bramall, Cabinet Member for Business, Skills and Development and John Bann, Head of Transport, Traffic and Parking Services.

6.5

Reasons for Call-In

Councillor Ian Auckland commented that, in the past, highway decisions had been taken at meetings of the Planning and Highways Boards. Legal advice had suggested that these decisions should be taken at executive level. The Cabinet Highways Committee which was then introduced enabled constituents’ involvement through the ability to make representations and enabled decisions to be made more effectively.

Councillor Auckland believed that the proposals would prevent people attending on an ad-hoc basis to draw the attention of Cabinet Members to an area of concern. It was clear that transport matters regularly engaged the public and the proposals seemed to be a step backward from the previous arrangements.

Councillor Auckland further stated that he had called the decision in as he had questions about how the new arrangements would work in practice.

Councillor Colin Ross added that the proposals appeared to be removing an opportunity for the public to interact with the Council. It was not clear from the policy briefing the opposition had received how the new system would operate and he was therefore seeking clarity of this.

6.6

In response, Councillor Leigh Bramall commented that people were living in different times now where levels of public concern were unprecedented. The new system would be the most democratic of all the Core Cities where the majority had a completely delegated process. Councillor Bramall believed that it was important to maintain the right for the public to make representations. Regular scheduled meetings would be maintained.

6.7

Members of the public would be required to pre-register to make representations and this could be done up to 24 hours prior to the meeting. If there was a substantial level of public interest a meeting of the full Cabinet Highways Committee could be called.

6.8

If members of the public or local Councillors had questions about an issue or a scheme they could contact Councillor Bramall outside of the meeting or through other avenues such as Full Council or the Cabinet meeting. He believed that local Ward Members would be given a greater opportunity to be involved in the process than previously. The Cabinet Advisor would attend meetings along with the Cabinet Member to provide advice where needed.

6.9

Questions were then asked from signatories to the call-in and responses were provided as follows:-

·      Meetings of the Committee will still be held in public. If there was a particular contentious item the Cabinet Member may decide to call a meeting of the Cabinet Highways Committee.

·      Members of the public who pre-registered to speak at the meetings would not be required to disclose the nature of their representation prior to the meeting, just that they wished to speak.

·      Funding for small schemes had now ended. Schemes put forward by Community Assemblies would be scored based on various criteria and ranked in terms of priority. Local Ward Members could still feed priorities through.

·      It was not planned at this stage for meetings to take place in the evenings.

In conclusion, Councillor Bramall stated that the new system would maintain public access to meetings. He did not accept the view that there would be any reduction in the public involvement and it put more responsibility in the hands of local Members to work with their constituents.

RESOLVED: That this Scrutiny Committee:-

(a) agrees to take no further action in relation to the called-in decision; and

(b) requests that a review of the new arrangements be undertaken in a year’s time following implementation.