Agenda item

The report of the scrutiny task group will be presented by Councillor Penny Hall, the chair of the group and the O&S committee are asked to endorse the report before it goes to Cabinet.

The chair of welcomed Councillor Penny Hall, as chair of the working group, to introduce the final report of the working group.  He emphasised that the role of this committee was to ensure that the task group had met their original terms of reference and that they were generally happy with the work that had been done and could endorse the recommendations.

Councillor Hall said this was an important report, firstly because it was the first scrutiny task group to report to this committee but more importantly because it was a review which was breaking new ground in its recommendations.  The ambition of the working group was to set up an events advisory group which could make decisions on whether an event should go ahead and enable consultation with ward councillors and the public during this process.  The group were made aware that these type of advisory groups existed in other councils and in particular at Gloucester City and they had considered a protocol used elsewhere. At a meeting in July, they were advised by officers that they could not support the protocol as it duplicated processes already in place and further legal advice made it clear that the events advisory group would not be in a position to make any recommendations or have any legal standing. Councillor Hall acknowledged that further work needed to be done to understand this position and she was meeting with the solicitor from One Legal tomorrow to question the legal advice. She would welcome any advice from the committee at this stage on how to take this review forward.

Other members of the working group agreed that this was a very important piece of work but in their opinion it was not ready to go to Cabinet and should not be rushed. They welcomed any process which would enable ward councillors to be more aware of events coming up but were disappointed if the advisory group could not have any teeth.

They praised the work of the chair and the excellent support for this review from officers, particularly those in Democratic Services who had worked hard to keep this review on track. 

The executive director, Grahame Lewis, spoke as sponsor of this task group. He explained that the covering report for Cabinet was designed to set out the implications for Cabinet when making their decision on the recommendations. The implications set out were based on legal advice and for that reason the officers could not support the third recommendation. In his view, the police were very keen on these types of advisory groups and indeed a Safety Advisory group operated at Cheltenham Racecourse very successfully.

Other members of the committee suggested that the task group should do further work in understanding how other councils could operate such a group within legal boundaries.

The chair commended the task group for their work and felt they had produced a robust report but acknowledged they needed more time to complete the review. He suggested that the task group could carry out further work and bring back their final report to the next meeting of this committee on 26 November. He suggested that the committee may wish to consider forwarding the recommendations to Council before going to Cabinet for approval so that a wider group of members could discuss the recommendations and give their views. The working group may also want to consider whether any constitutional changes may be required to support their recommendations as these would need to be approved by Council.

Resolved that the task group do further work with a view to bringing back their final report and recommendations to the next meeting of the O&S committee on 26 November.