Agenda item

Councillor Hadland read out a joint statement on behalf of the three party leaders, copies of which were circulated.  Essentially the joint statement advised that the leaders of each political group had worked together to agree a method of cross party working between now and the election which was more appropriate to the Borough’s circumstances than the current Improvement Board arrangements.  They had agreed to strengthen decision making in the Council by ensuring that all key decisions were taken by the Cabinet with Portfolio Holders making delegated decisions.  Other processes had been streamlined to improve cross party knowledge of the issues the Council was dealing with and involvement in decision making by the introduction of four new political functions to focus on namely; (1) Leadership Briefings; (2) Cross Party Consultative Group; (3) Quarterly Performance Reviews; (4) Development, Improvement and Peformance Panel.  The statement advised that Scrutiny would continue and Improvement Clinics would be developed further based on the pilot study.  A review of the Area Partnerships was currently being undertaken to ensure better public consultation, Ward Councillor involvement and feedback from these groups into and from Council decision making.  Following the visit to the Minister the previous week the Council were pleased that the Minister had welcomed our efforts to date but it was clear that we must accelerate the pace of change.  All Councillors and staff needed to focus on improving the weakest services, that we ensured a stronger customer focus, that our budget setting followed our priorities and that we continued to work with partners offering clear community leadership.

A joint Powerpoint presentation by the three party leaders and the Chief Executive was then made entitled “New Working Arrangements for Political Governance and Recovery”, copies of which were circulated.  The presentation outlined the way forward in terms of the operation of full Council, Cabinet it being noted that Cabinet would meet six weekly.  There would be cross party leadership briefings and a Development, Performance and Improvement Panel to replace the Improvement Board.  This would meet on a six weekly basis to receive and monitor reports and provide advice and comment on Councillor and Managerial Development, Performance Management and Recovery Plan Milestones.  Meetings would be open to all Councillors.  Details were also given in terms of the budget setting process for 2006/07 and in terms of the new Meeting Cycle the Senior Leadership Team would meet weekly on a six week rota at Cabinet, Leadership Briefing, Development Performance Improvement Panel and Consultation for Cabinet.                         .  Reference was also made to a 20:20 Vision Forum which would aspire to become a revitalised LSP.  In considering the presentation comment was made that the LSP (Local Strategic Partnership) was a partnership involving other bodies and organisations and not just a Borough Council body and therefore a structure of the actual Local Strategic Partnership could not be changed without wider consultation with the other partners.