Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from the Chairman (Councillor Stalford) and Councillors McCabe and McNamee.

            The minutes of the meetings of 16th and 30th June were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the District Council at its meeting on 9th February.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0        Background

1.1          At their meeting on 28th November 2014 members considered a report on the proposed political management arrangements for the new council post April 2015, including possible committee structures and how they should be constituted.  At that meeting SSP&R committee agreed the following:

1.     The adoption of five standing committees; Strategic Policy and Resources, Place and Growth, People and Communities, Planning and Licensing.

2.     Four committees; Strategic Policy and Resources, Place and Growth, People and Communities and Licensing,  will each comprise 20 Members

3.     The Planning committee will have 14 Members

4.     The establishment of an Audit and Risk Panel

5.     The Quota Greatest Remainder method of appointing councillors to committees (to be confirmed at the AGM)

6.     D’Hondt as the method for selecting positions of responsibility

1.2          Parties are now being asked to consider their nominations for the various committees for agreement at the AGM in March 2015.  Proposals for the AGM are also contained within this report.  To assist members with this process further detail on the role and operation of the new committees is now outlined in this report. 

2.0          Role of the Committees

2.1          Regulatory Committees – Planning and Licensing

               While there will be five committees in the new Council two of these committees, Planning and Licensing, will be exercising regulatory functions and will therefore have a different role to the other three standing committees.  Both committees will be quasi-judicial in nature and will therefore have delegated authority from the Council to exercise a number of their functions. This will mean that the decisions of both Committees will not be subject to Council approval or call-in. 

               The council has had a Licensing committee for a number of years and it essentially will continue to operate as before with terms of reference, a copy of which has been circulated.  Work has been ongoing throughout the shadow period with the Shadow Planning Committee on the operation of the new Planning Committee, including training, consideration of Planning decisions and best practice site visits.  Party Group Briefings have also been held to discuss the operation of the Planning Committee and its terms of reference, have been circulated.

2.2          Standing Committees – Strategic Policy and Resources, Place and Growth, People and Communities - Delivering the Council Services

2.2.1       In the first instance it is important that the services across the Council are aligned to one of the new committees to ensure continuity of delivery and decision making.

2.2.2       The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee will be responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Council through the development of its corporate plan and other key corporate strategies and policies.  It would also ensure effective use of resources and value for money for ratepayers, and oversee the Council’s relationship with a number of key agencies and partners.  The services of the council that will report into the committee will be those contained within the Chief Executive and Finance and Resources departments; Human  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2a

            The Democratic Services Manager submitted for the Committees consideration the undernoted report:

“1     Relevant Background Information

1.1    The Minister for the Environment has agreed the scheme of allowances payable to Members of the new Councils in April 2015

1.2    Belfast (as a council with a population greater than 200,000) will receive a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) of £108,000 per annum.

2       Key Issues

2.1    The following conditions in relation to the payment of Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) apply.

·        There will be a Special Responsibility Allowance threshold of £108,000 which the Council may pay to those Members who hold positions on the Council which are considered to involve additional responsibility.

·        No more than 50% of the Councillors can receive a special responsibility payment  - (equates to no more than 30 councillors within the Council)

·        No individual member can receive more than one special responsibility payment from this overall budget.

·        The maximum amount of Special Responsibility Allowance payable to an individual Member is £21,600.

2.2    Existing Shadow Council arrangements

         The existing Shadow Council pays Special Responsibility Allowances to those Councillors it considers to have significant, additional responsibilities over and above the generally accepted duties of a Councillor.

2.3    The division of the Special Responsibility Allowance is based upon the positions held by individual Members either as Presiding Councillor and Deputy Presiding Councillor, Chair and Deputy Chair of Committees or as Officers within the Political Parties. 

         The allocations are consistent with the Council’s system of proportionality which seeks to allocate positions in accordance with the relative strength of the Parties within the Council.  No councillor is paid more than one SRA, and no more than 50% of councillors (excluding the council chairperson and vice-chairperson) receive an SRA.

2.3    Proposals for New Council in April 2015

         A proposed scheme for the allocation of Special Responsibility Allowance during the new Council is attached at Appendix 1.  This allocation mirrors the arrangements that were agreed in June 2014 by the Shadow Council for the Shadow Council period and is recommended for adoption by the Committee.

2.4    The draft allocation is based on the same general principles that have been used to determine SRA allowance in the past.  These principles have been discussed in conjunction with all party leaders:

·        That the Shadow Council will select a traditional committee form of governance with five standing committees

·        That the following political officer positions will be eligible for SRA payment

-       Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of each standing committee

-       Party leaders of all parties (a party must consist of more than one member)

-       Deputy Party leaders – for parties with more than 6 members

-       Party Secretaries – for parties with more than 11 members

·        That an SRA allowance be allocated to Chairperson positions

·        That an SRA allowance be allocated to Deputy Chairperson positions

·        That a basic SRA allowance (equal to the Deputy Chairperson allowance) will be allocated to all remaining political officer positions

·        That the amount of SRA allocated to party group leaders is uplifted to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2b

            The Committee was reminded that Councillors were appointed to represent the Council on a range of outside organisations which dealt with Health, Education, Housing, Policing, Community Safety, Transport, Urban Regeneration, Tourism and Arts issues amongst others.  The Committee was also reminded that the appointments to those outside bodies would cease when the existing Council was wound up at the end of March, 2015.

            The Democratic Services Manager reported that, in the past, some of the appointments had been made at the Annual Meeting of the Council under the d’Hondt system of proportionality, while some had been made directly by Committees.  In addition, some of the appointments had now been designated as Positions of Responsibility under the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 and would be filled as part of that process, while other appointments were now part of the Public Appointments Process.

            In order to provide some clarity and direction to the Committee, Council officers would like to undertake a review of the outside bodies to which the Council was normally requested to make nominations and submit a report to the Committee in due course.  That report would assess the benefits to the Council of continuing to nominate representatives to the individual organisations and make a recommendation to the Committee on an appropriate proportionality mechanism to use to nominate representatives to those organisations where representation was considered to be beneficial.

            The Committee agreed that a review of the nomination of Members to outside bodies be undertaken and that a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1     Relevant Background Information

1.1    The Committee will be aware that the current Council agreed to continue with the existing committee structures for the shadow period until March, 2015.  In addition, the Shadow Council had opted for a traditional Committee system, with five Standing Committees, as the governance structure for the new Council from April, 2015.

1.2    The Council had agreed also to review the number and role of the existing working groups to take account of the dual governance systems which have been operating during the shadow period and particularly to prioritise the time commitment required of those Members holding office on both Councils.

1.3    The current policy for establishing working groups is that they should be appointed for a short-term to focus on issues of particular concern.  In addition, the following principles also apply to the appointment of Working Groups:

·        Working Groups should be established only if they are considered to be essential for the achievement of effective and efficient decision-making;

·        such Working Groups should be appointed for a fixed-term and for a specific purpose;

·        the Groups would not have decision-making powers but rather would produce a report with recommendations for consideration by the appointing Committee;

·        after the Working Group has concluded the business for which it was established, it would cease to exist; and

·        Working Groups should be formed on the basis of All-Party representation with nominees sought from the Party Group Leaders.

2       Key Issues

2.1    At its meeting on 22nd August, 2014 the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee considered a report on Working Groups and agreed to reconstitute the following until March, 2015:

2.2    In addition the Committee agreed the following:

·        To reconstitute the 5 area Based Working Groups.

·        The Housing Forum should be reviewed to take account of transferring functions.

·        That the following working groups should not be reconstituted as their work has either been completed or is now under the remit of the new Shadow Council:

Cross-Party reference Group on Community Planning

Governance Working Group

Historic Centenaries working group (now incorporated into the Diversity Working Group)

Members’ Development Steering Group (with capacity building issues being dealt with through the Budget and Transformation Panel)

Waste Plan Implementation Group

2.3    It should be pointed out that the work of some of the working groups which the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee agreed to reconstitute will be part of the remit of the new Standing Committees which will come in to operation from April, 2015

2.4    It is suggested that the Committee consider reconstituting only 5 of the Working Groups, namely, the Audit and Risk Panel, the Budget and Transformation Panel, the Diversity Working Group, the Good Relations Partnership and the Party Leaders Forum, on the same terms of reference and membership as previously agreed (copy of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2d

            The Committee agreed to defer until its next meeting consideration of the above mentioned report to enable a party group to receive a briefing.

            The Committee approved the commencement of a tendering exercise for the procurement of child safety equipment for a period of one year for the sum of approximately £38,000, with two times twelve month extension options, dependent on funding from the Public Health Agency.  The Committee noted that in accordance with the Scheme of Delegation, the contract would be awarded under delegated authority to the most advantageous tender received.

            The Committee granted authority for the commencement of a tendering exercise and delegated authority to the Director of Organisational Development, in accordance with the Scheme of Delegation, to accept the most advantageous tender received in respect of the printing of the City Matters publication for a four-year period.  The Committee agreed also to extend the current contract for one edition, if required, to allow for any delay in the procurement process.