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Agenda item
Report of the Chief Executive - Enhanced Inter-Tier Working and Devolution
- Meeting of Policy and Resources Committee, Wednesday 28th September, 2016 6.30 pm (Item 88.)
- View the background to item 88.
Decision:
RESOLVED:
1)
That Maidstone Borough Council should continue to engage with other
Kent local authorities with the objective of strengthening service
delivery resilience, improving cost effectiveness and securing
investment in services and community infrastructures;
2)
That Maidstone Borough Council should seek enhanced Inter tier
working on the basis of the strategic priorities and services
summarised at paragraph 2.14 of the report of the Chief Executive
and that any amendments to this list be delegated to the Chief
Executive in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman of
Policy and Resources Committee until such time that local
governance arrangements have been considered and
established;
3)
That Maidstone Borough Council should work with district councils
across Kent, Medway and Kent County Council to achieve this and in
particular with Dartford, Gravesham, Medway, Swale and Kent County
Councils;
4)
That delegated authority be given to the Chief Executive, in
consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Policy and
Resources Committee, to agree the detail of principles for enhanced
inter tier working;
5)
That Maidstone Borough Council should, when the opportunity arises,
participate in discussions across the whole of Kent and Medway with
the objective of developing a devolution proposition and that the
Leader and Chief Executive will participate fully in these;
and
6) That Maidstone Borough Council should participate in further development of devolution propositions alongside the North Kent authorities of Gravesham, Dartford, Medway and Swale and KCC for the reasons set out in paragraph 2.33 of the report of the Chief Executive.
Minutes:
Members considered the report of the Chief Executive which related to Enhanced Inter-Tier Working and Devolution.
The Chief Executive explained that the report had been produced as a result of a request by the Committee and as a result of a question by a Member at Full Council.
Members noted that the purpose of the report was to consider the merits of collaboration and partnership working across Kent. The Chief Executive emphasised that there was a desire of all authorities to improve inter-tier working which would include Kent County Council and Medway Council.
It was noted that the
Leader and Chief Executive had attended meetings with districts and
the debates have resulted in an overall driver to secure better
outcomes through spending less public money. All options need to be considered and could be
achieved for example by inter-tier working, more partnership
working and in some instances it could be better to go it
alone.
The Chief Executive advised that it had become evident that West Kent and East Kent had a long history of collaborative working and had already established district and cluster footprints and there was a distinct reluctance for them to work with districts outside of their own area. It is therefore clear that a desire to work with the North Kent authorities and Kent County Council would be the best option for this Council. This would include Gravesham, Dartford, Medway and Swale districts.
However, there is no suggestion that the partnership arrangements that the Council currently has with other districts would not continue.
Members were advised that devolution was already operating across the country and Maidstone had already benefited being part of the South East LEP (Local Enterprise Partnerships) growth deal. This had included funding to support transport infrastructure in Maidstone which is one of the Council’s priorities.
The Council therefore needed to consider whether it wanted to progress working in the North Kent arena.
During the ensuing discussion Members made a number of points as follows:-
·
That this was a pragmatic way forward and the Council cannot afford
to stand outside. There was a clear
message from East and West Kent that we are not welcome;
·
We should look at ways of working with our colleagues to improve
services for local people. We should
try and get a deal with North Kent.
·
The report was very concise and was the first step along a long
path, we should not unpick it, we should
work with it.
·
Confused about the approaches made, on whose authority were they made.
·
There should be some scrutiny undertaken about those Councils who
we want to enter into a partnership with. We should look at
balance sheets.
·
Should the Council be looking at what the liability would be to
Maidstone’s taxpayers, what risk are we setting ourselves up
for.
·
Should the Council take the line of working with North Kent, rural
services would be further down the priority list.
·
We should be knocking on all districts’ doors to be in charge
of our own destiny, North Kent is a long
way away and it pulls us into something we cannot relate
to. The principle of devolution is
correct but it has gone quiet in central government, so not sure if
they are on the same pathway.
·
Not enough evidence to persuade us to take a certain route which
would affect the next 10 to 20 years.
Can support the principle but cannot support the recommendations
put forward as we do not have enough information in the
report.
·
There should be more information in the report about why the other
areas were not open to discussions. Why
was it not possible to use Tunbridge Wells as a conduit to work
with others.
What evidence supports that theory?
·
The recommendations in the report were correct, it is the right
direction. We do have some synergies
with West Kent and no doubt those
relationship would continue.
·
There are clear economic synergies with Swale and Gravesham and
there was no evidence to suggest that working with Dartford and
Gravesham would harm our rural areas.
·
We are in limbo, when did the kent
leaders meeting take place and why did we not have a report
straightaway?
·
Have the Council written to the West Kent Authorities?
·
Have we looked at operationally how this would work, what would the impact on this Council
be?
·
Is the area finite or could we have the opportunity to be involved
elsewhere?
· Economic development is the key, we need to have as many jobs as possible. We don’t want Maidstone to turn into a dormitory town for another area. We need to build on this.
In response to the
points made by Members, the Chief Executive advised that:
·
the five Group Leaders had been
appraised of the discussions on devolution that had been held at
County and district level.
However, there had not been anything substantial to bring to
Committee until now. However, it was
therefore considered important that the Committee gave a mandate
now to move forward.
·
Devolution had not gone away, indeed ten
deals had already been made across the country. The risk of not participating was that the Council
would only have a fixed amount of resources and with government
cuts we would need to secure as much resources as
possible.
·
it was emphasised that the Council could
not continue to be completely on their own.
·
There is a suggestion that all our services would be carried out on
the footprint of what is in the report, this is not the case or
what we want to achieve. In terms of
inter tier working, the other districts may do something that is
better performing that we currently do, so it would be worth
joining forces to work on one footprint.
·
The list is not finite, there will be
opportunities to work more closely together on other
services.
· The outcome from this report would be to take the first step, after which the detail would be looked into more and Members would be fully involved.
During the discussion Councillor Mrs Blackmore proposed and Councillor Boughton seconded a change to Recommendation 3 to read:
‘That if recommendation 2 is agreed, then Maidstone Borough Council should work with district councils across Kent, Medway and Kent County Councils’.
The motion was lost.
Voting: For: 4 Against: 11 Abstentions: 0
Councillor Mrs
Blackmore then proposed and Councillor Boughton seconded a change
to Recommendation 5 to read:
‘Maidstone Borough Council should, when the opportunity
arises, participate in discussions across the whole of Kent and
Medway with the objective of developing potential devolution
propositions and that the Leader and Chief Executive will
participate fully in these’.
The motion was lost.
Voting: For: 5 Against: 10 Abstentions: 0
Councillors Mrs Blackmore, Boughton, Brice and Round asked that their dissent be recorded in regard to Recommendations 3, 5 and 6 only
The Committee then
voted on the recommendations set out in the report.
RESOLVED:
1)
That Maidstone Borough Council should continue to engage with other
Kent local authorities with the objective of strengthening service
delivery resilience, improving cost effectiveness and securing
investment in services and community infrastructures;
Voting: For: 15
Against: 0 Abstentions: 0
2)
That Maidstone Borough Council should seek enhanced Inter tier
working on the basis of the strategic priorities and services
summarised at paragraph 2.14 of the report of the Chief Executive
and that any amendments to this list be delegated to the Chief
Executive in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman of
Policy and Resources Committee until such time that local
governance arrangements have been considered and established;
Voting: For: 13
Against: 1
Abstentions: 1
3)
That Maidstone Borough Council should work with district councils
across Kent, Medway and Kent County Council to achieve this and in
particular with Dartford, Gravesham, Medway, Swale and Kent County
Councils;
Voting: For: 10
Against: 4 Abstentions:
1
4)
That delegated authority be given to the Chief Executive, in
consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Policy and
Resources Committee, to agree the detail of principles for enhanced
inter tier working;
Voting: For: 13
Against: 2
Abstentions: 0
5)
That Maidstone Borough Council should, when the opportunity arises,
participate in discussions across the whole of Kent and Medway with
the objective of developing a devolution proposition and that the
Leader and Chief Executive will participate fully in these;
and
Voting: For: 11
Against: 4
Abstentions: 0
6)
That Maidstone Borough Council should participate in further
development of devolution propositions alongside the North Kent
authorities of Gravesham, Dartford, Medway and Swale and KCC for
the reasons set out in paragraph 2.33 of the report of the Chief
Executive.
Voting: For: 11
Against: 4 Abstentions:
0