Agenda and draft minutes

In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, Councillors are reminded that it is a requirement to declare interests where appropriate.

The following disclosures of interests were made:

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Governance Committee held on 9 September 2024.

The minutes of the meeting of the Governance Committee held on 9 September 2024 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To answer any questions asked by the public which relate to an item on this agenda and which are in line with the Council’s Constitution.

Public Question Time will be concluded by the Chair when all questions have been answered or on the expiry of a period of 15 minutes, whichever is the earlier.

No questions were asked by the public.

At the request of the Chair, to receive the attached briefing note by the Chief Executive on English Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation.

The Committee considered the Briefing Note by the Chief Executive which was attached to the main agenda.  The Briefing Note provided the Committee with background, the latest position and next steps on both devolution and local government (LG) reorganisation as they stood at the time of writing.  The Committee was asked to accept that the agendas remained emergent, and the information contained within the briefing was subject to potential change.

The Committee was then given a presentation by the Head of Governance, People & Performance (as Monitoring Officer) which covered the information detailed in the Briefing Note.  During the presentation the Committee was reminded that no formal decisions had yet been made, but it was expected that an Extraordinary Meeting of the Full Council would be arranged in mid-September to agree the submission of the final proposal.  The Committee noted that the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer were in ongoing discussions with their counterparts at other relevant Councils to ensure that their respective approaches aligned.

The Committee thanked the Monitoring Officer for the presentation.  A discussion then took place where clarification was sought on various matters and views were expressed on elements the Committee felt should be considered during future stages of the devolution and re-organisation process.

In response to queries raised by the Committee:

• The Monitoring Officer advised that any conversations with neighbouring authorities were currently in the early stages, and it was too early to share any information with Councillors or the public.  The Committee noted that local authorities in question would provide consistent messaging when it was appropriate.
• Was advised that, although the Council had not yet engaged with other local authorities which had undergone the reorganisation process, there were various case studies which identified the pros/cons and lessons learned.
•  The Monitoring Officer explained that in some examples where councils had come to together to form a unitary, the overall number of staff had not significantly reduced which might provide some reassurance to the workforce. It was however acknowledged that the impact on staffing levels was dependent on a council’s location and structure.  The Chair thanked the Council’s staff for their work during the current unsettling period.
• Whilst a timetable for strategic and unitary elections had been provided, it had not been confirmed whether local elections in May 2026 would still go ahead or if the Police and Crime Commissioner’s term of office could be affected.  Councillors would be informed once that information was available. 
• It was noted that the 21 March deadline would not tie down boundaries, but aimed to assure Central Government that local authorities were working together to meet the September deadline.
• The Leader stated that discussions were being held with other Council Leaders, both individually and as a collective, and expected that more specific information would become apparent in the next fortnight.  The Leader stated that the matter was being explored diligently and advised that Councillors would be kept informed but stressed that the process was fast-moving and based on a timetable set by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair informed the Committee that the Councillors’ Information Bulletin published that day had included an Update from the Elections Team.  The Committee were advised to direct any questions regarding the item to Chris Pedlow, the Democracy & Data Manager.