Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Anne Fairweather and Deputy Tom Sleigh.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes of the Sub Committee meeting held on 12 May 2021.

The Sub Committee noted a correction within Item 4 wherein ‘process of electing Sheriffs elsewhere’ should read ‘process of appointing Sheriffs elsewhere’.

RESOLVED – That, pending the above amendment, the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 12 May 2021 be agreed as a correct record.

Report of the Chamberlain

The Sub Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain regarding capital prioritisation and the 2020/21 and 2021/22 rounds of annual capital bids. The Chamberlain introduced the report and outlined the proposals recommended.

RESOLVED – That the Resource Allocation Sub Committee:

(i)            Review the schemes summarised in Table 1 and, particularly in the context of the current financial climate, confirm their continued essential priority for release of funding at this time;

(ii)           Agree the release of up to £2.93m for the schemes in Table 1 from the reserves of City Fund and City’s Cash, subject to the required gateway approvals;

(iii)          Note that in order to maintain sound financial discipline a review of unallocated central project funding provisions will be brought to Members before the summer recess.

Report of the Town Clerk

The Sub Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk concerning the Governance Review in respect of principles underlying the Committee structure.

Introducing the report, the Chair reflected on the structured and piecemeal consideration of Lord Lisvane’s recommendations to date. Whilst this had been productive so far, now that consideration turned to the overall committee structure itself she was minded that a more holistic approach would be beneficial. With that in mind, she sought and obtained the sub-committee’s endorsement for the proposal that, rather than continuing to press ahead on a piecemeal basis, a revised approach seeking to draw together the totality of Members’ emerging views into an overall proposition for consideration, be adopted.

During discussion, the following points arose:-

·      It was agreed that the application of “executive or non-executive” nomenclature was not an appropriate one for Members, given their varying responsibilities and the Corporation’s differences with other organisations. However, it was agreed that a serious look at the level of delegations in place and getting that balance right was important, with it observed that in some areas Members perhaps had a tendency to micro-manage issues where it would be more beneficial to take a more strategic approach.

·      With reference to the scheme of delegations, Members agreed that there was a need to undertake a holistic review with the aim of seeing where improvements to efficiency and the speed of decision-making could be made. Ultimately, Members would need to determine to what level they were comfortable in delegating to officers, with it stressed that the review needed to happen through a partnership approach between officers and Members, rather than being officer-driven, so that relevant Chairs in particular could be engaged prior to amendments being presented. It was noted that timescales for achieving this review would be challenging, particularly in the

There were no questions.

There was no other business.

The Chair then thanked Members and Officers for their attendance and contributions before closing the meeting.