Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chairman for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED

That Councillor John Hammond be appointed as Chairman for the ensuing year.

To appoint a Vice Chairman for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED

Councillor Diana Thompson be appointed as Vice Chairman for the ensuing year.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and prejudicial interests in any item on the agenda.

A blanket declaration of personal interest was made by those Councillors who were existing County Councillors, Borough Councillors and Town and Parish Councillors.

In accordance with Rules 11 and 35 a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relating to its work.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers.

(Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research it would be helpful if questions were submitted at least one working day before the meeting.)

There were no questions from the public.

To note the suggested terms of reference for the Panel and the guidance note on the organisation and running of the Panel meetings.

Consideration was given to the suggested Terms of Reference for the Panel and a guidance note on the organisation and running of the Panel meetings.

RESOLVED

That the Terms of Reference and guidance note be noted.

To discuss the Performance and Capacity Project Plan, and to agree a Work Programme for the Panel.

To follow.

The Performance and Capacity Project Plan was circulated to Members of the Panel,  in order to provide some background to the discussion relating to the establishment of a Work Programme.  It was noted that the document explained the various Workstreams under the Performance and Capacity Block. Project Initiation Documents had been produced for each of the Workstreams and could also be provided to Members, on request.  In addition, a high level plan for each of the Workstreams had been produced.  It was suggested that the Panel might wish to consider which Workstreams it would like to examine in more detail.

In considering the Work Programme, Members of the Panel raised the following issues:

Councillor Brown explained the background to the Neighbourhood Area Working Panel, which had been set up.  He had requested that officers in the Performance and Capacity Block examine the Sustainable Community Strategies, Corporate Plans and Local Development Framework for all four Authorities and to identify what was common to all of them and also to identify any unique issues.  At the next meeting of the Neighbourhood Area Working Panel, consideration would be given to these documents, in order to ascertain where there was an overlap.  There would also be an opportunity to engage with other Members of the Council.

Reference was made to the existing Neighbourhood Forums and it was considered that these should be maintained for the duration of the Shadow Authority, as it was considered best practice to have smaller groups within smaller communities.  Consideration should be given as to what structures should be in place before April 2009 and where good work was already taking place this should be promoted.  It was also felt that there was a need to maintain officer commitment and that Councillors should work alongside officers.

It was commented that, within the People and Places bid, the proposals for Area Forums mirrored what the County Council was proposing, at the same time.  It was considered that existing Neighbourhood Forums were currently carrying out some good work.  It was also felt that consideration should be given as to how services could be delivered, involving Town and Parish Councils. It was suggested that an exercise should be carried out to establish which Town and Parish Councils wished to be involved and also relating to budget issues and that the Panel should be advising in respect of this.

In order to establish the Work Programme for the Panel it was suggested that a number of Member Sub Groups be formed.

RESOLVED

1.      that the following Task Groups be formed, with the following membership:

2.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The notes of guidance considered earlier on the agenda suggest that Democratic Services draws up a schedule of meetings based on a six weekly cycle from September 2008.  The Panel is asked to agree to this and the dates for future meetings will than be circulated as soon as possible following the agreement of the Chairman.

RESOLVED

That the Cheshire East Democratic Services Team draw up a schedule of meetings, based on a six weekly cycle from September 2008.  The dates for future meetings to be circulated as soon as possible, following agreement with the Chairman.