Agenda item

To receive a presentation on the roles and responsibilities of the Advisory Board, and to consider and discuss the working arrangements. This will include:

·         The role of the Progress Group

·         Reporting arrangements

·         Arrangements for working groups and task and finish groups

A copy of Article 9 of the Council’s Constitution setting out the role of the Advisory Board and terms of reference is attached. A workflow diagram is also attached.

Karen Edwards, Corporate Director, provided a presentation on the roles and responsibilities of the Project and Policy Advisory Board.  The main purposes of the Board were to be a sounding board for policies and projects, examine specific priorities to prepare delivery plans and prepare new policies.  It was expected that the major project work would be dealt with through task and finish groups which would report back through the Board.  There were a number of potential sources where work for the Board could be generated including Council Notices of Motion, the Council Plan, requests from Cabinet and Government or other agency consultation papers.

It was proposed that a Progress Group was established which would meet between Board meetings to co-ordinate and develop the Board’s overall work plan and prepare agenda for the forthcoming meeting.  The Progress Group would also be required to draft terms of reference for the sub groups and informally track progress on the work of the sub groups appointed by the Board.

There were a number of existing groups already established which the Board would be requested to agree appointments to and some new groups were being proposed.  The existing groups were the Aldershot Regeneration Group, Farnborough Regeneration Group (formerly Farnborough Town Centre Working Group) and the Elections Group.  It was proposed that the existing Local Plan Members Group should incorporate the housing strategy work and rebranded as the Strategic Housing and Local Plan Group.  There were two other areas of work which it was proposed would require task and finish groups which were leisure facilities and contracts and the Rushmoor 2020 programme.

The Board discussed the proposals and raised a number of issues. Board members proposed a number of items of work to be include on the future work plan which included the Procurement Strategy, Hampshire T19 Programme and the Management Plan for Southwood Park.  There was also some discussion regarding whether there should be one regeneration group rather than a separate group for Aldershot and Farnborough.  It was agreed that the groups should remain separate and any common issues could be identified when the groups reported back to the Board.  It was also agreed that task and finish groups should be provided with a timeframe of when the work should be finished and reported back to the Board. 

The Board AGREED to the establishment of groups to consider the leisure facilities and contracts and the Rushmoor 2020 programme.  The Board also AGREED the rebranding of the Local Plan Member Group to the Strategic Housing and Local Plan Group.

The Board noted that a high priority for the Council was to set up a Local Housing Company by the end of 2018 to support the delivery of homes in the Borough.  It was proposed that, given the importance of the matter, the issue should be considered by the Board itself, instead of establishing a task and finish group.  The Board was advised that an additional meeting of the Board might be required to enable consideration of the Local Housing Company business case if it was to be considered at full Council at the end of July.  The business case would set out the aim of the Local Housing Company and the business plan containing the detail of the Local Housing Company would follow at a later date.  The Board AGREED for an additional meeting of the Board to be set up to enable consideration of the Local Housing Company business case, if required.