Council and democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex RM17 6SL

Contact: Jenny Shade, Senior Democratic Services Officer  Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk

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Items
No. Item

44.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 69 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of General Services Committee meeting held on 16 January 2023.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the General Services Committee meeting on 16 January 2023 were approved as a correct record.

45.

Items of Urgent Business

To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

46.

Declarations of Interests

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Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

47.

Representations to Government Directions issued in January 2023 pdf icon PDF 80 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report provided background and details asking the Committee to comment on Thurrock Council’s representations to government on the proposed expansion of Directions. As part of the representation period ending on 7 February 2023, interest parties were able to comment on the Directions the Secretary of State was ‘minded-to’ implement following the receipt of the Commissioners’ first report and the interim findings of the best value inspection.

 

Councillor Worrall referred to page 2 under other matters of the letter regarding “novel intervention” and questioned why we were not getting a conventional approach and why were we being treated as a novel intervention as this did not feel right for the council. Ian Wake stated novel was the word used by the commissioners and was novel in two ways in that we had a best value inspection at the same time as directions where normally the best value inspection would come first then directions afterwards. Secondly, the decision to appoint Essex County Council as the corporate body as the commissioners, generally you would get a lead named commissioner, but Government had appointed Essex County Council as the name commissioner in this case. Councillor M Coxshall stated the intervention had to be undertaken quickly, done at speed, and had to be done with not just one commissioner. As the council moved to a more conventional intervention more conventional rules would be required to understand where the council was going. The letter had explained that and would be made more public for the residents of the borough to see what decisions were being made.

 

Councillor J Kent referred to page 2 under other matters of the letter and quoted “pose some challenges that had not been experienced by authorities in intervention ...” and asked for some examples of the challenges that had been posed by this model. Councillor M Coxshall stated a challenge of the model as Leader was that this was new to Essex County Council, new to Thurrock and a new approach had to be designed which had been different to that envisaged in the1999 Act. This was an opportunity to make it clear and open, so everyone knew the decision structure going forward. Ian Wake stated as Interim Chief Executive one of the challenges when the best value inspection was ongoing was the capacity and the additional demand on the organisation when trying to undertake a financial diagnostic at the same time. There was an expectation of further interventions as part of the best value inspection and had been an element of second guessing exactly what these would be and responding to commissioner demands. The letter identified that the council had worked collaboratively and positively with commissioners, but the additional complexity had been challenging.

 

Councillor J Kent stated he was not convinced that having a different model from the 2 September would have resolved any of those issues. He agreed the letter had been very open at asking that Essex County Council take on the role of the commissioner and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

48.

Employment Matter

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee interviewed candidates for the Interim Director of Legal and Governance role.

 

RESOLVED

 

That Council be recommended to appoint Asmat Hussain to the post of Interim Director of Legal and Governance.