Restarting council reform
The Executive has proposed new governance arrangements, ethical standards and powers for district councils. agendaNi reviews the recommendations.
A partnership panel between local and central government is among the proposals outlined in the public consultation. The consultation document reads: “The existing relationships between departments and their agencies and the local government sector, whether at a representative level through the Northern Ireland Local Government Association or at a local level with individual councils, are informal, ad hoc and inconsistent. They do not provide a firm foundation for a more strategic approach to the delivery of joined-up services.”
The panel would “formalise” the relationship between the Executive and district councils and would have a “purely advisory” role. It would give advice to ministers about matters affecting the deployment of their department’s functions and highlight matters of concern.
Supervision powers currently available to the DoE would be made available to all departments. And, if a council fails to deliver a particular service, ministers would be allowed to intervene. In exceptional cases, where a department judges the failure to be so serious or feels that people are at risk, it would have the power to “give a direction” to the council. If the department assumes responsibility for delivering a function, it would also assume a regulatory power over the council.
Community planning
A community planning process, like that used in England, Scotland and Wales should be introduced as intended. The department proposes that government departments be required to promote the use of community planning and “have regard” to community plans.
Governance
When it comes to making decisions, the consultation proposes that councils choose between:
• the current system, where committees consider specific issues and make recommendations, with a decision made by the full council;
• a cabinet-style model, whereby executive responsibility for all operational decisions would be devolved from the full council to a small committee of councillors; or
• a streamlined committee model, whereby a central policy committee and a limited number of other committees would be given executive responsibility for specific decisions.
If either the cabinet or streamlined committees are adopted, they should be accompanied by a call-in procedure, which would allow decisions that have been devolved from the full council to be reviewed. The call-in procedure would operate in a similar manner to the ‘petition of concern’ procedure in the Assembly. A number of councillors would be able to join together to request that a specific decision is reviewed if, for example, they believe that council policies were not followed or that there is an issue in relation to the protection of political minorities in the council district. The trigger for a call-in would be set at 15 per cent of the total council membership. If a decision is the subject of a call-in, the outcome of the investigation must be considered by either a scrutiny committee or the full council.
The consultation further proposes that a scrutiny committee be established. It would have no authority to overturn a decision but would be able to confirm the original decision or refer it back to the committee that made the decision for further consideration.
Voting
In allocating the roles of Mayor, Chairman, committee chairs and positions on a cabinet-style executive, the department proposes that the d’Hondt and Sainte-Laguë divisor systems be used when political parties are selecting the position that they wish to hold. The single transferrable voting system should then be used when each councillor is voting for the individual that they wish to hold a position. In addition, the d’Hondt system should be the default approach if the political parties on a district council fail to agree on the system to be adopted.
To minimise larger parties gaining the positions under d’Hondt, the department proposes that the agreed method be applied to all positions of responsibility within a council (including nominations to external bodies) over its full four-year term.
This is despite the DUP’s traditional opposition to mandatory coalition. When Edwin Poots announced the consultation, he told the Assembly that the method would depend on each council.
“A council could consider the Sainte- Laguë method and other means of power sharing, but, if it were not to agree to those means, d’Hondt would be the fallback method. It is up to councils. They are masters of their own destiny in that respect, and they can identify their means of ensuring that people will have their voices heard. However, if they cannot agree, d’Hondt will be used, and that might be the preferred option for many councils.”
In November, TUV leader Jim Allister asked: “How can the DUP creditably claim to be fighting for the abolition of mandatory power sharing at Stormont when at the same time they bring it into councils? It seems that far from highlighting the democratic absurdity of the system, the DUP are committed to making d’Hondt more acceptable in Northern Ireland.” The DUP declined to comment.
When the council is to take strategic decisions, such as major capital projects and programmes that impact across a number of wards, qualified majority voting should be used. A threshold, set at 80 per cent of council members present and voting, will apply, rather than a system of cross-community voting (operated by the Assembly).
Ethical standards
Councils would be more transparent. They would publish a constitution that sets out details of how they operate, including corporate and business plans. A code of conduct would become mandatory. It would include the seven principles of public life (the Nolan Principles):
• selflessness;
• integrity;
• objectivity;
• accountability;
• openness;
• honesty; and
• leadership; and the four additional principles:
• respect;
• equality;
• good working relationships; and
• promoting good relations.
Any complaints regarding breaches of ethical standards in district councils would be referred to the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints. The Commissioner would then decide whether a case should be referred to the relevant council for local resolution or whether it should be investigated by the Commissioner’s office.
Each council should have an independent monitoring officer and a standards committee to deal with complaints referred to it by the Commissioner. The independent monitoring officer would ensure that the council creates a register of gifts, hospitality and declarations of interest.
Service delivery
The department proposes that councils be required to take the department’s guidance in relation to implementing best value. Departments should be able to specify performance indicators for the delivery of council functions. Councils would also be required to publish an annual improvement plan to provide accountability to ratepayers and ministers.
In terms of financing the formation of 11 new councils, the DoE proposes that existing councils should incur expenditure on behalf of their relevant successor councils (to be recovered from the new council once it is formed). This would primarily occur during elections to the newly formed council.
Eight of the 11 Transition Committees which were set up to facilitate the amalgamation of Northern Ireland’s 26 councils to 11 still meet on a voluntary basis, despite their funding being cut in October.
The Department of Environment are currently working on establishing a pilot programme to test new consultative and practical working arrangements within the 11 council groups. They are due to begin in April and their aim will be “to identify and promote best practice that will establish working relationships and arrangements [between councils].”
A spokesman told agendaNi: “It is hoped that, by engaging council and departmental staff, the pilots will enable the sector to test the new arrangements to ensure that they are fit for purpose and also to build capacity.”
