Meeting documents

To sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 August 2014.

The minutes of the meeting of the Joint Committee held on 4 August 2014 were agreed by the Committee and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

To resolve that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of the Schedule 12A of the Act.

The Head of Sustainable Development presented the report which outlined the draft format for the Planning Policy staff consultation document; and set out the complete consultation document that was intended to be shared with Planning Policy staff on 14 October 2014.

The new structure (as outlined in Appendix A) would create two teams; one principally delivering Chiltern’s planning policy and plan preparation programme, and the other principally delivering South Bucks planning policy and plan preparation programme. The structure reflected the fact that the Joint Committee had resolved that the two authorities would not consider any further the preparation of a single local plan. The shared Planning Policy service would consist of 8.5 FTE permanent posts.  Accordingly, with the exception of the manager’s post in the new shared service, the roles in the two new shared service teams were to be largely akin to the existing equivalent roles in those existing teams.  Major changes to roles were not proposed, albeit that those roles will each undertake some work on behalf of both authorities.  A job description and person specification for each role was included in Appendix B.

It was reported that some of the key benefits of the shared service incorporating two teams included:-

·       A greater range of skills and knowledge was available to the authorities;

·       Retention of staff who were knowledgeable of the existing Districts area;

·       The ability for each authority to focus on its priorities;

·       A greater ability to deal with spikes in workload;

·       The authorities will have a stronger voice in the sub region;

·       There will be the opportunity for staff to specialise to some extent, thereby leading to more robust plan making;

·       There will be a reduction in duplication of work which is carried out separately by the two authorities; and

·       Being able to serve the Development Management / Control teams at both sites effectively and equally.

Members’ attention was drawn to the draft timetable in Appendix E, and an amended version of the timetable was tabled at the meeting to set out the following:-

·       Start of Consultation on 14 October 2014

·       End of Consultation on 20 November 2014

·       Conduct the selection process during the week 5 January 2015

·       Implement the shared service from 12 January 2015

Members were invited to comment on the proposed consultation document.  Members sought clarification on the thought process of the review and specifically as this review was the first to result in a proposal for the service to remain as two teams with a shared manager. 

The key concern from some members was in relation to the advertising and selection timescale for the appointment of the Planning Policy Manager. Having considered the matter, Members resolved to remove the Manager post from the consultation, and to commence the recruitment and selection process for the Manager earlier to avoid any gap in vacancy period to maintain continuity and consistency for the Planning Policy Team.  It was also noted that current contract periods for the existing Contractor were due to expire at the end  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.