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Maidstone Borough Council

Community, Leisure Services & Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services Priorities for the Municipal Year 2013-14

Report of: Orla Sweeney, Overview & Scrutiny Officer

1.          Introduction

1.1        A review of corporate governance was undertaken by Overview and Scrutiny during the 2012/13 municipal year. The report was considered by Council on 4 February 2013 and it was agreed that option C, Retain Cabinet System with enhanced Scrutiny be taken forward.

1.2        Council requested that the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee develop the model and proposals for implementation to be considered at the April Council meeting.  The Scrutiny Coordinating Committee considered a number of options for the scrutiny model, opting for Option B – Align the Committees to Cabinet Portfolios.

1.3        As a result the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services and Cabinet Member for Environment’s portfolios have been aligned to this Committee’s terms of reference.

2.          Recommendation

2.1    The Committee are advised to consider the verbal update from the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services on his priorities for the 2013-14 Municipal Year.

2.2        The Committee should focus its questioning on the following areas to help ensure that its future work programme and review topics are reflective of, and can be aligned to, key decisions and priority pieces of work being undertaken during the year ahead.  Many of these will feature in the list of forthcoming decisions:

·         Major pieces of work being undertaken by departments within the Cabinet Member’s portfolio areas (see Appendix A);

·         Their personal priorities for the year;

·         Key decisions; and

·         Pre-Decision scrutiny.

3.      Reasons for Recommendation

3.1     The Community and Leisure Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee are responsible for holding the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services and the Cabinet Member for Environment to account.

3.2     The areas of responsibility for the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services are detailed at Appendix A. 

3.4     The Committee may find that there is some cross over with their responsibilities and other Scrutiny Committees.  The Committee should focus primarily focus on its terms of reference but can make recommendations to the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committee or the Co-ordinating should a piece of work be highlighted that falls outside its jurisdiction.

4.      Impact on Corporate Objectives

4.1        The Committee will primarily consider reports that deliver against all the Council priority: ‘For Maidstone to be a decent place to live.’

          4.2    The Strategic Plan sets the Council’s key objectives for the medium   term and has a range of objectives which support the delivery of   the Council’s priorities.  Actions to deliver these key objectives may          therefore include work that the Committee will consider throughout the coming year.