Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

No interests were declared.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Panel’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Thursday 10 April 2008, at 5:00 pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report asks the Executive Member and Advisory Panel, to re-consider the decision taken by the Executive Member on 19 March 2008 in respect of Ward Committee Local Improvement Schemes Grant Applications, which was called in and has now been referred back by the Scrutiny Management Committee (Calling-in), with recommendations.

Members received a report which asked them to re-consider the decision taken by the Executive Member on 19 March 2008 in respect of Ward Committee Local Improvement Schemes Grant Applications, which was called-in and had now been referred back by the Scrutiny Management Committee (Calling-in), with recommendations.

The original decision taken by the Executive Member had been:

“That Option One be approved to enable the incorporation of the proposed changes into a new Ward Committee grant application policy in respect of local improvement schemes, subject to the inclusion of a condition relating to use of Ward logos, where they exist, in place of the first condition in Annex 2, and that officers be asked to prepare an abbreviated form for schemes for under £500 going to just one Ward Committee, which would reduce the length of the form but only by two or three pages.”

The Scrutiny Management Committee (Calling-in) had decided:

“That Option B be approved and the decision referred back to the Executive Member, with a recommendation that a final decision on the proposed changes to the Ward Committee local improvement schemes grant application process be deferred until such time as the forms and guidance notes had been sufficiently revised to enable Members to give them proper consideration.”

The following options were available to the Executive Member:

(a)   To confirm the original decision made at the meeting on 19 March 2008;

(b)   To accept the recommendations of the SMC (Calling-in).

Some Members expressed the view that the recommendations of the SMC (Calling-in) did not make any substantial difference to the original decision by the Executive Member and that the referral back to EMAP was a waste of time and resources.

Advice of the Advisory Panel

That the Executive Member be advised:

(i)         That the original decision be amended to require the revised draft forms to be circulated to all Members of the EMAP by the end of April, for their comments to be submitted by 15 May and the finalised version to be re-circulated a week later.

Decision of the Executive Member

RESOLVED:             That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  In accordance with the legal and constitutional requirements for dealing with called-in decisions.