New unitary to launch with ‘cabinet’ model as elected mayor model appears to be ruled out

The option of a directly elected Mayor for the region, seen in areas such as London and Greater Manchester, appears to have been ruled out however.

Three of the four councils that will make up the new unitary – Northamptonshire County Council, Northampton Borough Council and South Northamptonshire Council – have a governance model where decisions are taken by a group of senior councillors in the cabinet which include the leader.

Daventry District Council however operates using a committee model, where decisions are taken at cross-party committees before being recommended for full council to rubber stamp them.

With the new West Northamptonshire unitary replacing the current councils in April, debate had already started on whether the committee structure could offer a fresh start for the new authority. Members at the county council had regularly complained that for many years important information regarding the council’s financial issues was not shared beyond cabinet members, with backbench councillors feeling sidelined and out of the loop.

An inspection by Max Caller, which recommended the formation of the new unitary councils for the north and west of the county, said he was ‘struck by the number of councillors who told us that they had been refused information when they sought to ask questions’.

He added: “Members told us that they needed to get permission from the cabinet member to discuss this with you or just not getting a response.”

Councillor Adam Brown, the deputy leader of Daventry District Council and a county councillor for the Bugbrooke ward, has been tasked with leading a small number of councillors – known as a task and finish group – to oversee the first draft of the governance structure of the new unitary.

No proposals are concrete at the moment, and once they are they will still have to be consulted on before being implemented.

He says however that the legislation to form the new council has restricted the options the council can take in terms of whether it adopts a cabinet or committee model.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Under the Structural Change Order [the legislation setting up the new council] we are instructed to adopt a leader and cabinet model, so that’s how it will start off in its first year of operation. It will be open then for the council and councillors to determine whether they want to change to a committee structure at a later date.”

The issue was discussed at the latest overview and scrutiny meeting of the shadow unitary, which is preparing for the full council launch on April 1 next year, where the possibility of a directly elected Mayor for the area also appeared to be ruled out.

Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday (October 20), Councillor Brown added: “At the outset when we were turning our attention to the process of drafting the constitution we had to take some legal advice on how much scope we had to move away from the leader and cabinet governance model, because the Structural Change Order mandates that we are within that structure at the outset.

“The legal advice came back that were we to change the governance structure after April 1 but prior to the elections [which are due to be held in May], then we may well bind the new council into a five-year term within a certain governance structure.

“So whilst we’re not a decision making body, the working assumption is that we will draft the constitution based on the leader and cabinet model, but leave open the possibility that West Northamptonshire Council may wish to consider changing that governance model to a committee structure or even a directly elected mayor.

“But it was our view that a directly elected mayor would not comply with the diverse range of identities in the West Northamptonshire area. It’s quite coherent if it’s an urban area, but with an urban area like Northampton working in conjunction with market towns and rural areas – we felt it wasn’t appropriate.”