Issue - meetings

To assist Members, the following documents are attached:-

·                     Copy of the report of the Director of Environment - Portfolio of the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Enterprise & Leisure

·                     Copy of the Record of Decision

·                     Copy of the Call In Letter

That having considered the decision, the Committee was satisfied with the explanation received and so the decision could be implemented.

The Chairman referred to the call in of the decision of the Cabinet, from its meeting held on 19 March 2013 on the New Deeside Partnership Structure.  A call in notice had been received signed by five Members of the Council.  To assist Members with their deliberations on the issue, the following documents had been circulated with the agenda:

(a)    A copy of the report considered by the Cabinet on 19 March 2013.

(b)    A copy of the Cabinet Record of Decision, Record No. 2817

(c)     A copy of the call in notice signed by Councillors P.G. Heesom, R.J.T. Guest, R.B. Jones, M.J. Peers and C.S. Carver

(d)    A copy of the Procedure for dealing with a called in item.

The Chairman invited the call in signatories to address the Committee via a spokesperson or individually to which the decision makers could respond.

Councillor R.B. Jones described the report as flawed and said that it did not consider the implications for Flintshire County Council as a whole, in concentrating on the Deeside area alone.  He thought that there was not sufficient detail about financial implications, anti-poverty, environmental impact nor equalities impact on Flintshire and said that concentrating resources in one area would lead to a lack of resources elsewhere within the county.

Councillor P.G. Heesom stressed that the call in was not driven by anti-Deeside sentiments.  He said that problems faced in the Deeside area were not unique to that area and that the whole county suffered similar issues.  He said that the report contained little evidence to back up claims and that there were wider issues to address in Deeside such as the road Access to North Wales from England and the importance of new job opportunities for Flintshire residents.  He felt that a holistic approach was needed to re-generation.

Councillor M.J. Peers said that the report was not specific about how much funding would be available to the Deeside partnership, where it would come from and for how long funds would be available.  He was concerned about extra demands on officer time and resources, and commented that the report only focussed on structures and that Cabinet needed to step back and re-visit the report from a Flintshire wide perspective.

Councillor R.J.T. Guest said that the proposed structure was misleading in suggesting that existing groups were not going to continue to be involved.  He said that there was no detail of any Welsh Government funding in the report and felt that many areas of Flintshire encountered difficulties and that this report was divisive.

When asked by the Leader to go through the main points of the Cabinet report, the Economic Development Manager said that the new structure would remove unnecessary tiers and was not an additional group but merely a rationalisation of what currently happened.  He reported that certain issues needed to be discussed across a wider area such as congestion issues, and therefore needed a wider partnership.

The Director of Environment said that the report built upon an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84

As detailed in the recommendation.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the report which sought approval for a new governance structure for regeneration in the communities of Deeside.

Deeside was one of the Council’s key regeneration areas with a major concentration of deprivation and poor housing in the county.  The proposed Deeside Partnership Structure would bring together various working groups to provide a joined-up, strategic approach towards regenerating Deeside.

RESOLVED:

That the implementation of the proposed governance arrangements be approved.