Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report in relation to an update to alternative options to Area Committees.

The report was introduced by the Assistant Chief Executive. Th report was being presented as a follow up to that presented in October 2023. Since then the Council had engaged New Local to speak to representatives from the Council and to see what other local authorities had done to engage with their communities.

The new Communities Director was looking at restructuring the group, which would include how the Council engages with communities. There were no definitive proposals yet in place, but ideas were being explored. It was recommended to extend the pause in Area Committee’s for the remainder of the Municipal Year. It was anticipated that a report would be presented to the Environment and Communities Scrutiny Committee in the New Year.

There were areas within the City that were already undertaking work around community engagement, whereas others would need more support from the Council.

Members of the Committee commented on the report which included:

i.      In terms of Shaping Abbey there were lessons that could be learned for future iterations. The broad approach and intent was to bring together officers and residents.

ii.    The next steps in the process would be further thinking from the Director of Communities and how they engaged with community groups. It was possible to trial new ways of working over the coming months.

iii.   The approach to look at how the Council engaged with communities was welcomed. There were still concerns over the continued pause in Area Committee’s especially as nothing new in terms of engagement had been put forward.

iv.  New Local were a separate organisation that had done a lot of work with community wealth building. They had worked with a number of local authorities and some of their experience of working with communities was outlined in appendix 1.

v.    Some community groups were better equipped and already had a voice in terms of working across their community. However, there were some communities that did not have as loud a voice and it was important that the Council worked more closely with those groups to ensure they were heard.

vi.  Members were more up to speed on the issues affecting local communities and this was an opportunity to work with communities to shape some of the future ways of engagement.

The Committee resolved (unanimously) to recommend to Council that Area Committees be paused for the remainder of the municipal year, 2024/25, while pilot work on alternatives continue and while more detailed proposals are developed for implementation from the start of the municipal year 2025/26