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Issue - meetings

Governance Arrangements

Meeting: 27/01/2021 - Democracy and General Purposes Committee (Item 163)

163 Governance Arrangements pdf icon PDF 160 KB

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Minutes:

The Head of Policy, Communications and Governance introduced the report and explained that over five years had passed since changing the governance system to the current committee model, and so another change could be made. If a change was decided upon, it would need to be implemented at the Council’s annual meeting; May 2021 or May 2022.

 

Debate took place around the benefits of both Committee and Cabinet systems of governance.

 

The arguments in favour of Committee systems included that it was more democratic, as all elected Members were afforded the opportunity to speak at meetings to represent the views of themselves, their ward and their political party. Meetings also gave members of the public a forum at which to speak. It was suggested that Members have more involvement in decision-making, with reference made to cross-party working within Committees, as opposed to becoming ‘back-benchers’ in a Cabinet system. It was argued that Cabinet systems rely on a good working relationship between the Cabinet Member and the Chair of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee, with a poor relationship potentially leading to the views of the latter not being appropriately considered.

 

It was argued that in Cabinet arrangements, decision-making would be more efficient and effective as well as providing greater accountability for the decisions made. Examples were given of good decision-making within the Cabinet system, with reference to Committees which had not worked so well.

 

RESOLVED: That Option Three as set out in the report, whereby the status quo is retained and the Council continues with the Committee system, be agreed.