Agenda item

The Mayor circulated details of the Cabinet membership, the portfolios of each member of the Cabinet and their key areas of responsibility.

The Mayor extended her thanks to the retiring Chair of Council, Councillor Tommy Mulvenna and his consort Maureen Mulvenna for all of their hard work over the last year.

The Mayor congratulated the new Chair of Council, Councillor Wendy Lott and Councillor Davey Drummond on his appointment as Deputy Chair.

The Mayor also welcomed newly elected Councillors Ken Barrie, Lewis Bartoli, Julie Cruddas, Les Miller, Erin Parker-Leonard, Paul Richardson and Matt Wilson onto the Council and thanked all of the officers whose work had ensured that the elections in North Tyneside had run smoothly.

The Mayor also thanked all those involved in the regeneration scheme at Spanish City and the Central Lower Promenade sea defence scheme and highlighted that both had received awards.

Finally the Mayor thanked all employees for their work in delivering the services to residents on a day to day basis and made the ambitious plans and vision for North Tyneside a reality.

The Cabinet would consist of 9 councillors and the Elected Mayor, as shown below.

Details of the Mayor's proposed approach to managing executive decision making, which included her delegation scheme of executive decision making to Cabinet Members, were also circulated.

The following decisions would be delegated to Cabinet Members in 2019/20:

a) approving the Authority’s response to government consultation papers;

b) approval of service specific plans;

c) debt write off up to £50,000 in relation to Council Tax, Business Rates, Sundry Debts and Housing Benefit Overpayments (Cabinet Member with responsibility for Finance and Resources);

d) to approve responses to regional strategies that impact on the Borough;

e) to determine Traffic Regulation Orders where any objections are not withdrawn (Cabinet Member with responsibility for Environment and Transport);

f) to consider any objections received, but not withdrawn, in relation to the proposed construction of road humps (Cabinet Member with responsibility for Environment and Transport);

g) to approve any proposals directly related to the delivery of objectives in the approved Our North Tyneside Plan;

h) to approve the Member Development Programme (Deputy Mayor);

i) to consider any applications received for discretionary relief for Council Tax or Business Rates, considered only when exceptional circumstances apply, as set out in the Policy for the awarding of local taxation discretionary relief (Cabinet Member with responsibility for Finance and Resources); and

j) Debt write off between £3,000 and £50,000 in respect of current and former Council house tenant arrears and write off of credit balances between £3,000 and £10,000 associated with untraceable former tenants (Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing).

Executive decision making on other matters not listed above would, except in exceptional (urgent) circumstances, be taken by Cabinet collectively.

Any decisions taken by Cabinet Members would have to comply with many of the same good governance requirements that would apply to collective decision-making by Cabinet, namely:

·         Publication on the Forward Plan

·         Presentation of a written report to the Cabinet Member - the report to be in the same format as current Cabinet reports including reference to legal and financial implications background papers, etc.

·         Publication of a record of the decision and availability for call in within specific deadlines.