Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that discussions were ongoing within the Northern Ireland Executive in respect of the Review of Public Administration and how the reform of Local Government within Northern Ireland would be progressed.  At present there remained significant uncertainty about the future of the Review and the associated implementation timetable.  Despite such uncertainty, the Local Government sector had recognised the need to maintain momentum and seek to develop its own proposals in respect of an “improvement, collaboration and efficiency” programme for Local Government.  The intention would be to support Councils in delivering more efficient and value-for-money services to the citizen.  Such work was particularly important given the current financial pressures facing Local Government and the wider public sector.  The Chief Executive drew the Committee’s attention to the following key issues:

            Meeting with the Environment Minister

            A delegation from the Northern Ireland Local Government Association and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives met with the Environment Minister, Edwin Poots, on 15th September to discuss the proposed next steps in respect of the Review of Public Administration.  It was understood that the Minister intended to submit an options paper for the consideration of the Northern Ireland Executive in October, 2010.

            Update on Improvement, Collaboration and Efficiency Work

            At the aforementioned meeting, the Environment Minister had been provided with an update on the ongoing local government led work on developing proposals for an improvement, collaboration and efficiency programme, a copy of which had been circulated to the Members.  That report had indicated that exploratory work was ongoing in order to examine and identify potential collaborative opportunities on a local, sub-regional and regional level, which might support service improvement or drive efficiencies in delivery.  Areas which were currently under consideration included procurement, information systems, human resources, asset management, finance and customer?facing services.  Council officers had been involved in that scoping work, in line with the Committee’s previous decision that the Council engage with potential partners to explore collaborative opportunities and ensure that those were considered within the context of the Council’s own efficiency programme.  It would be the intention that that work would culminate in the development of an over-arching business case for local government which would set out potential opportunities and a cost-benefit analysis.  The Committee would be kept fully informed as that work progressed and, in particular, of any potential opportunities which might emerge.

            Legislation

            The Council had received correspondence from the Department for Regional Development indicating that the draft Roads (Transfer of Functions) District Councils Bill would be withdrawn from the Northern Ireland Executive’s legislative programme.  The Council had responded previously to the consultation exercise on the draft Bill, the aim of which was to transfer certain roads related functions, currently undertaken by the Department for Regional Development’s Roads Service, to the proposed new eleven Councils following the implementation of the Review of Public Administration.  The correspondence stated that, given the fact that it would not now be possible to create the envisaged new Council structure by 2011 as had been planned, the Minister had decided that it would be impractical to consider transferring the functions contained in the Bill to the existing twenty-six District Councils.

            Transfer of Functions

            A Transfer of Functions paper, suggesting that a number of voluntary integrated area based pilot schemes be investigated with the aim of bringing together regeneration, planning and community development, was being currently prepared and a further report in this regard would be submitted to the Committee for its consideration in October.

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided and agreed that a letter be forwarded to the Minister for the Department for Regional Development seeking discussions in respect of further strengthening the relationship between the Roads Service and the Council.