The new mayor’s “out of date” Scheme of Delegation report highlighted by Bedford Borough’s LibDem Group has needed an update since July last year.
Following the local elections in May, the Lib Dems declared that they will be “forensic and relentless” with their scrutiny of the new Conservative minority administration.
And this was evident following last month’s council’s annual meeting, when councillor Dean Crofts, (Lib Dems, Kingsbrook), the group’s spokesperson for health, said “key legislation and responsibilities” were missing from the Executive Scheme of Delegation report.
In a statement, councillor Crofts said: “It is not clear who is responsible for new legislation to help tackle homelessness under the Homelessness Reduction Act.
“This urgently needs updating so that legal duties are clear to the residents of the borough.”
When asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service for clarification on the missing or out-of-date information, councillor Crofts said: “I expect on a change of executive and a full set of new and returning members to council that Delegation of Powers to Officers is updated to reflect the new council.
“This includes new acts which are now embedded into legislation, like the Homelessness Reduction Act (not mentioned on page 35) and the Domestic Abuse Act (not mentioned at all).
“Also, structures have changed so, for example, the new ICB (Integrated Care Board) regarding Health Services needs mentioning rather than using old terms such as Clinical Commissioning Groups (page 35),” he said.
The Delegation of Powers to Officers was last updated in July last year (Release 15), the month the ICB came into being.
The LibDems were asked why it did not matter that this document wasn’t updated after July 2022 by the last administration to include updates such as replacing the CCG with the ICB.
Its spokesperson said: “This should have been updated post-election with a new administration, especially given their manifesto commitments.”
A statement from the Mayor’s Office said: “The previous Liberal Democrat administration had failed to update the “Scheme of Delegation” leaving it out of date since 2017/18 – given the time restraints and need for continuity in the council we felt it appropriate to continue with the existing scheme for the time being.
“The mayor and officers are reviewing the “Scheme of Delegation” as a matter of priority and will provide an updated scheme that accurately reflects the new council in the near future.”
You can view the Scheme of Delegation here. This link may disappear once the document is updated.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
