Agenda and minutes
PDF 65 KBVenue: Council Chamber
Contact: Paulina Ford 01733 452508
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Apologies for absence Minutes: No apologies for absence were received.
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Declarations of Interest and Whipping Declarations At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.
Minutes: There were no declarations of Interest or whipping declarations. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee had been asked to consider a Call-In request that had been made in relation to the decision madeby Cabinet and published on 3 February 2014, regarding The Future Direction of Children’s Centres Delivery – FEB14/CAB/09.
The request to Call-In this decision was made on 5 February 2014 by Councillor Murphy and supported by Councillor Forbes and Councillor Johnson. The decision for Call-In was based on the following grounds:
(i) Decision is Key but it has not been dealt with in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.
(ii) The decision does not follow the principles of good decision making set out in Article 12 of the Council’s Constitution, specifically that the decision maker did not:
a) Realistically consider all alternatives and, where reasonably possible, consider the views of the public. b) Understand and keep to the legal requirements regulating their power to make decisions. d) Act for a proper purpose and in the interests of the public. f) Follow procedures correctly and be fair.
The reasons put forward by the Councillors were:
Paragraph 3: Breach of constitution. The previous call in recommendation was not debated fully in public. The debate was not fully transparent as it was part dealt with behind closed doors. I accept that this call in relates to the executive decision and not the previous call in but I would like to see the debate in public this time. Additionally there was no debate at the Cabinet meeting. Paragraph 4, a, d & f The consultation period was time tabled during winter and over Christmas a particularly difficult time for consultations especially amongst the service user involved who are mainly parents with young children. The consultation should not have been commenced when a call in had been agreed but this was not done in this case. No attempt was made to research the children’s views, nor were the evaluation reports commissioned (e.g. Cordus Bright) to look at Sure Start in Peterborough considered and not were the outcomes for children properly reported or considered. Cabinet did not consider and debate the recommendations from scrutiny and council. Matters raised in the consultation and the web consultation tool were not designed to raise alternatives. As such Cabinet did not realistically consider all alternatives and, where reasonably possible, consider the views of the public. Alternatives were numerous and included (1) further consultation, (2) making budget savings through efficiencies, (3) reducing the level of budget reductions required and (4) income generation by use of the facilities and charges for this, as well as looking for contributions from health and other budgets. No cost benefit analysis was done concerning the consequence of the proposals and effects on other services and the increased costs for these. No information was considered regarding the additional travel costs for service users at the Cabinet meeting. To date no information on additional cost and cost of the proposal such as travel expenses for outreach or staff restructuring or redundancies were considered. The impact of loss of service ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |