Agenda item

Report attached.

Members considered a report of Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP, Leader of the Council, confirming the establishment of Cabinet Committees and Cabinet Groups for the 2025/26 Municipal Year and appointing members to the Committees and Groups.

Councillor Dad provided a brief introduction to the report.  Some changes to appointed persons had been proposed in the light of Councillors Aziz and Walsh retirement from their Cabinet roles.

Councillor Khan expressed disappointment that two out of the three proposed Working Groups contained no Opposition representation.  Councillor Dad responded that those arrangements had been carried forward from the previous administration. At that time, the Labour Group (then in opposition) had been advised that it could still feed any comments or suggestions into the Working Groups by contacting those members directly.

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

In June 2015, Cabinet had established the Cabinet Committee (Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013).  The Cabinet Committee determined whether to grant, renew, revoke or vary scrap metal licences pursuant to the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, where the applicant or licensee (as the case may be) had informed the Council that they wished to make oral representations.  Meetings would take place only as and when required, but this body was needed to enable compliance with statutory requirements.

In December 2017, Cabinet had established the Cabinet Committee (Street Naming).  The Cabinet Committee met from time to time and discharged the Council’s functions in respect of the naming and renaming of streets pursuant to Sections 17 and 18 Public Health Act 1925.

In June 2012, Cabinet had established the Cabinet Waste and Recycling Group.  The body acted in an advisory capacity to Cabinet and did not have any delegated or decision making powers.  The Group met infrequently, but provided oversight of certain aspects of the Council’s Waste Services.

On 21^st September 2022, Cabinet had established the Net Zero Working Group.  The Working Group’s remit was to support the work of Cabinet in addressing climate change, but it did not have any delegated or decision making powers.  The Group was currently active.

On 18^th September 2025, Cabinet had established the Cabinet Action Fund Working Group.  The group’s remit was to evaluate applications for funding from the Cabinet Action Fund and to make recommendations to the Leader of the Council and Executive Director (Resources) for the payment of any grant.  The delegated authority to make any payment rested with the Executive Director (Resources), following the aforementioned consultations.

The terms of reference for all of the bodies mentioned above were appended to the report.  It was proposed that those bodies continue into 2025/26, with the membership as shown in Table 1, set out below.  Members were reminded that the formal Committees must only comprise councillors who were Cabinet Members:-

Table 1

There were no alternative options for consideration or reasons

Resolved                                 (1)   That Cabinet agrees to the establishment of the Cabinet Committees and Cabinet Groups, as set out in Table 1 above, and with the terms of reference, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report;

(2)   That the membership of the Cabinet Committees and Cabinet Groups, as set out in Table 1 above, be approved.