Agenda and draft minutes

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made by Members.

To consider the report of the Chief Executive.

The Chair invited the Chief Executive to present the report on Local Government Reorganisation.

The Chief Executive introduced her presentation stating that final briefings hadn’t taken place when the agenda was published and she wanted to incorporate feedback from those this evening.

The Chief Executive gave a presentation (slides attached) making the following points:

• the Interim Stage had no geography included as it was felt that not enough empirical work had yet been carried out;
• cross-party support had been a positive motivating factor for officers;
• Growth was missing from Government’s six criteria and officers had identified six Exeter principles (slide 6);
• Officers had worked with comparable cities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Norwich;
• a press release last week showed that the officers had worked with Plymouth and Torbay to see where their proposals could be accommodated within Exeter’s;
• officers had moved away from thinking at the interim stage that 3 unitary councils would be favourable, mindful of Torbay at the time as a small, well-performing unitary council, whose wishes had been accommodated to a degree, to a 4 unitary model – Exeter plus 49 parishes, Plymouth plus 13 adjacent parishes, Torbay and adjacent areas (different to Torbay’s model) and a Coast and Countryside authority;
• the submission must be based on a solution best for all of Devon;
• Exeter had outgrown its current administrative boundaries;
• the Leader and Chief Executive were liaising with Devon Association of Local Councils as well as Police, Fire Service and other relevant stakeholders;
• Exeter was not currently parished, unlike other areas and the intention would be develop Neighbourhood Area Committees and recommend that the new authority carry out a Community Governance Review;
• Officers would look to replicate the good work undertaken in housing across wider public sector services, including different ways to deliver some of the services not currently provided by the Council such as Adult Social Care, Children’s Services and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND);
• how services would be delivered would be decisions for the new authority;
• salient points from Members’ would be reflected as far as possible in the submission and it would be acknowledged where actions would be for the shadow or new authority;
• academic work had focussed in the past on a large one authority bringing efficiencies but more recent research show that leadership, engaging with local demand, understanding local needs was recognised as more important;
• joint areas of work with other districts had been established, resulting in data sharing, a data hub and discussion about engagement work;
• submissions must be based on existing district boundaries to be legally compliant. A modification to the existing district boundaries had then been requested to reflect the proposed expanded boundaries. Legal advice had been taken which confirmed the submission would be compliant;
• from options appraisals it appeared that the Devon County Council proposal was the least worst option but this had not been agreed through the formal decision-making process; and
• Exeter had city status and must ensure that the Lord Mayoralty  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.