Senior officers and councillors at Bedford Borough Council will continue to take a wide range of decisions without full Executive sign-off under updated governance arrangements for the coming year.
A report for next Wednesday’s annual council meeting (May 13) confirms that portfolio holders can make decisions within their areas of responsibility, with only those involving expenditure above £100,000 required to be referred to the mayor or Executive.
Senior officers are also authorised to make decisions on procurement, property and service delivery within approved budgets, with certain senior officers able to approve emergency actions costing up to £250,000.
The council report says the arrangements are designed to ensure decisions are taken “at the most appropriate level” and allow the authority to operate efficiently.
Paddington pub
However, recent Freedom of Information (FOI) responses relating to the council’s lease of the former Paddington pub on Midland Road, submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), have raised questions about how such decisions are recorded and scrutinised.
Read: FOI reveals former pub lease was signed without councillor sign-off
The council said it holds no records of any report or briefing provided to its Section 151 Officer or Monitoring Officer regarding risks identified in a building survey prior to the lease for the former pub being signed.
Separate figures show the authority spent around £679,000 on the property between 2022 and 2025, including rent, security and associated costs.
A further request seeking internal correspondence between housing and legal officers about fire safety risks and lease terms remains outstanding more than three weeks after the statutory deadline for the council to respond.
The council has also refused to supply a breakdown on key decisions taken by officers in 2023/24 and 2024/25 “as this information is not held centrally in an easily reportable format”, and would exceed FOI cost limits to compile.
To bypass this cost limit, the LDRS has asked to inspect these decisions using a different set of transparency regulations.
The delegation scheme forms part of the council’s constitution and will be noted by councillors at the annual meeting on 13 May.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
