Issue - meetings

Report CSD22035

At its last meeting the Committee had received a report updating them on progress with the review of the Council’s Scheme of Delegation. The Scheme described the basis for lawful decision making by officers, so it was necessary to set out areas of responsibility clearly, be transparent and user friendly. It needed to be high-level but set out areas of limitation as appropriate. The current scheme was being updated to meet these requirements – a draft of a completely new Scheme of Delegation was circulated to Members before the meeting.

Members pointed out that the provisions around the “call-in” of planning applications needed to be corrected to reflect the latest changes to the Local Planning Protocol and Code of Conduct. The draft document would be checked and developed further and then reported to the Working Group before being referred to the annual Council meeting for approval.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Wells and the Member Working Group who had initiated the review of the Scheme, and also the officers who had been involved.

RESOLVED that

(1) That progress on developing a new Scheme of Delegation be noted.

(2) That authority be delegated to the Director of Corporate Services and Governance to finalise the Scheme of Delegation for Member approval.

(3) That Members consider whether the new Scheme should be submitted to the annual Council meeting on 18^th May for approval, or back to this Committee’s next meeting on 26^th May prior to Council approval. 

(4) Note that the Leader will be asked to approve the executive delegations to officers within the Scheme.