Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed Members to the extraordinary meeting of the Council and began by sharing an announcement regarding the work of the Boundary Commission.

“As I am sure you are aware the Boundary Commission is reviewing the boundaries for divisions within Lincolnshire County Council. As a consultee West Lindsey were invited to comment on proposals. In January Council agreed a response to the consultation which was sent to the Boundary Commission by the Director of Resources. The response includes an alternative approach which was felt to meet the Governance requirements for West Lindsey better.

I am pleased to say that our alternative proposals have been accepted by the Boundary commission. This is a great result demonstrating Democracy in action. I would like to thank the Governance and Audit and in particular their chair Cllr McNeil as well as the leader of the opposition Cllr Shore for their hard work on this.

I understand that the next step is for the Council to communicate our agreement with the new proposals and I am sure that Mrs Gill and her team will ensure that this happens within the timescales.”

                                 Councillor David Bond

               Councillor Alexander Bridgwood

                                 Councillor Jackie Brockway

                                 Councillor David Cotton

                                 Councillor Hugo Marfleet

                                       Councillor Malcolm Parish

                                 Councillor Tom Regis

                                 Councillor Lesley Rollings

                                       Councillor Angela White

Members may make any declarations of interest at this point and may also make them at any point during the meeting.

Councillor Ian Fleetwood declared that he was a Lincolnshire County Councillor, and that LCC had agreed the report the previous week.

The Leader of the Council introduced the report, reminding Members of the process to date.  Council had received the Greater Lincolnshire Devolution Deal Interim Governance Proposal and the then latest version of the deal document at its meeting on 16 November 2015.  Council approved that the Greater Lincolnshire devolution expression of interest, submitted to Government on 4 September 2015, should be developed into a fit for purpose devolution deal document via continued formal engagement with Government and that authority was delegated to the Leader and Chief Executive to continue devolution discussions and negotiations with Government.

These discussions and extensive work culminated in the Devolution Agreement being signed by the ten Greater Lincolnshire Council Leaders and Government Ministers.  This was formally announced by the Chancellor in the Budget on 16 March.

There were clear statutory processes that needed to be followed in accordance with the Cities and Local Devolution Act 2016 to establish a mayoral combined authority and devolving appropriate powers from central government for May 2017.  The Greater Lincolnshire deal was one of the first to be progressed under this legislation.

The constituent councils needed to undertake a governance review, publish a scheme as to how a mayoral combined authority would work, undertake a statutory public consultation on the scheme and provide a summary of the consultation responses to the Secretary of State.  The primary purpose of a governance review was to set out the rationale for creating a Greater Lincolnshire geographic/economic footprint and to propose options for governance. The governance review and the consultation on the draft scheme would enable the Secretary of State to decide whether the statutory tests on improving the exercise of functions were met and whether it was appropriate to make the order (if parliament approved) establishing the Mayoral Combined Authority.  Before making such an order, consent needed to be sought from the constituent councils.

The report set out the terms of the governance review and the scheme on which consultation would take place.  Each council was to receive the attachments for consideration by its Full Council and a report inviting the same recommendations at their next scheduled meeting.

The Leader clarified that the report was about gaining approval for public consultation.  The ten constituent authorities would work together achieving what National Government could not, in terms of community relationships.  Devolution was seen in the same way as Neighbourhood Plans by taking local control and funding from Government.  It was vital to appoint a mayor as the offer would not be worth taking without.  The ten leaders had met with Greg Clarke, but once a mayor was in place that person would speak on behalf of all the authorities.  Whilst there would be a cost this was anticipated to equate to a minimal precept per household.

Benefits would be physical and social as well as financial, and the bid would grow and multiply, with further proposals in the next submission.  Each authority would have one vote on an equal basis, and each Council would continue  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.