Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The Council has agreed to conduct a pilot area committee in an area termed "Bath South" and comprising the above electoral wards.

1.2 The Council has delegated development control powers to the pilot area committee, and has requested the Council Executive to delegate certain executive powers. The Council is legally not able itself to delegate executive functions.

2 RECOMMENDATION THAT

2.1 The Council Executive delegates to the Bath South Area Committee the highway powers referred to in paragraph 4.3 of this report with a budgetary limit of £50,000 which is to be allocated from the Transportation Capital Programme.

2.2 Consideration be given at appropriate times during the pilot process to any requests from the Area Committee for further delegation of executive functions that might assist in achieving the learning objectives of the pilot process.

3

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 There are no direct financial implications arising from this report. All decisions of the Area Committee on this and other delegated executive functions must be in accordance with the Policy and Budget Framework and the Budget Management Scheme of the Council.

4 THE AREA COMMITTEE PILOT - TRANSPORTATION ISSUES

4.1 The Council has agreed to set up an Area Committee as a pilot process. The Council has delegated certain of its development control powers to the new Committee. The Area Committee will also act as a sounding board on local issues and will develop a working relationship with local initiatives and projects within its area.

4.2 The Council has requested that the new Committee be given certain transportation powers. These are executive powers and may only be delegated by the Council Executive.

4.3 The key aspects of the Area Committee involvement in transportation issues would be

4.4 The Committee would be responsible for agreeing within the budget of £50,000, which projects should progress. Examples might include pedestrian crossings, footway improvements, carriageway improvements and street lighting.

4.5 It is not proposed that any routine maintenance programme budgets be disaggregated to the Area Committee.

4.6 The Area Committee will have access to Officer advice in determining these matters. The Executive Councillor for Transportation and Roads remains ultimately accountable for the executive decisions of the Area Committee within his portfolio area. Accordingly, the Area Committee and the Executive Councillor will wish to establish an effective working liaison on such matters.

5 OTHER EXECUTIVE ISSUES

5.1 At this stage, the Council has not identified other executive powers it would like to be considered for delegation to the Area Committee. It is possible however that during the course of the pilot process, such matters will be identified by the Area Committee.

5.2 If such a situation arises, the relevant executive Councillor will be consulted and a further report brought to the Council Executive for consideration.

6 MONITORING

6.1 The pilot itself will be monitored over its first 12 months' operation. The Head of Democratic Services will monitor the effectiveness of delegated executive arrangements with the relevant Heads of Service and the Executive Councillors. An opportunity will be given to the Council Executive on an informal basis to review its aspects of the pilot after 12 months' operation.

7 RATIONALE

7.1 Given the Council's wish to pilot area working, it is appropriate that the option of undertaking delegated executive powers be an integrated part of the pilot.

7.2 This will create the opportunity to examine relationships between various parts of the Council operating executive functions as part of the pilot process.

8 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

8.1 At this stage there are no other executive power proposed for delegation to the Area Committee. However, as the pilot process proceeds, other possibilities may emerge and will be considered by the Council Executive on a request of the Area Committee.

9 CONSULTATION

9.1 No specific consultation has taken place on this report which is an enabling report to give effect to the wishes of the Council.