Agenda item

Fundamental Review: Design Principles and Governance

Joint report of the Town Clerk and the Chamberlain.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a joint report of the Town Clerk and the Chamberlain which proposed a set of design principles for the forthcoming fundamental review process.

 

It was noted that the Policy & Resources Committee had already agreed to exclude from the scope of the fundamental review those major projects that had already been approved by the Court. The design principles would, therefore, need to be amended to reflect this.

 

Members stressed the importance of a framework being developed to help guide decisions, thereby ensuring that choices made were repeatable and consistent. It would be of particular importance to ensure that recommendations made to Members were explained fully, so that Members had clear options to choose from, a framework to guide both objective and subjective decision-making, and could determine allocations accordingly.

Clear prioritisation criteria would also be essential.

 

It was also suggested that it might be helpful to include something on how the non-major capital projects would be approved, so that there was a differentiation between those which were to be funded by loans, those which were income-generating or had allocated funding, or those which fell into neither category.

 

The question of Member involvement was discussed, with it noted that openness and transparency would be crucial in order to ensure buy-in across the Court and satisfy Members that a consistent and fair approach was being adopted. The Town Clerk suggested that a series of Workshops with Members, outside of the formal meeting process, might be the most effective way to achieve this, as many items would be cross-cutting in nature and highly detailed, so associated discussions might not fit well within the usual meeting structure.

 

Following discussion, it was agreed that authority should be delegated to the Town Clerk (in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman) to revise the principles in line with Members’ comments, subject to them being circulated to the full Sub-Committee for comment prior to sign-off.

 

RESOLVED: That authority be delegated to the Town Clerk, in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, to revise and agree the design principles for the fundamental review.

 

Supporting documents: