Cabinet Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda. 

There were no declarations of interest.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2024 and 18 March 2024.

The minutes from the meetings held on 11 March 2024 and 18 March 2024 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

To receive questions from the public in accordance with the Constitution.

Questions, of no longer than 50 words, can be submitted to the Democratic Support Unit, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ, or email to democraticsupport@plymouth.gov.uk. Any questions must be received at least five clear working days before the date of the meeting.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s Urgent Business.

Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (The Leader) introduced the Cabinet Appointments 2024 – 25 item:

The Leader proposed an amendment to appointments naming Councillor Sally Haydon (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Libraries, Events, Cemeteries and Crematoria) as the external appointment for the Plymouth Waterfront Partnership and replacing Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sport, Leisure and HR&OD).

Cabinet agreed:

1.    the proposed amendment;

2.    The appointments contained within the report for the 2024/25 municipal year.

Liz Bryant (Head of Legal Services/Monitoring Officer) introduced the item and highlighted the following points:

a)    In July 2023, the Leader announced his commitment to conduct this review and set out terms for the scope of the review;

b)    This commitment was formalised into a court order as part of the judicial review proceedings;

c)    The terms of the order were: it would be an independent learning review, the terms of reference needed to be approved at this meeting and reflect the matters that the Leader committed to in July 2023;

d)    The review would commence immediately upon the completion of the extant court proceedings or the finalisation of the terms of reference;

e)    Once started, the review had to be completed within three months of commencement, the findings must be presented to City Council, published on the Council’s website, and made available for public inspection;

f)     As the Commissioning Officer for the review, Liz Bryant would be looking at suitable candidates for undertaking the review as an independent reviewer;

g)    Although the terms of reference were due to be approved at the meeting, there would be an opportunity for the independent chair to review them and to make agreed amendments prior to the commencement of the review;

h)    The terms of reference dealt with the principles and purpose of the review, the issues that would be considered as per the court order and the way in which the review itself would be conducted;

i)     In line with the conduct of the review, it was proposed that an independent Chair would lead the review. The independent Chair would be someone with suitable local government expertise and would be supported by advisors possessing legal and environmental regeneration and planning expertise;

j)     The review would be supported by Plymouth City Council administrative officers and there would be a panel of Officer Advisors which would be chaired by Liz Bryant who would support the review. These officers would have had no previous involvement in the Armada Way Scheme;

k)    It was expected that the reviewers would want to speak with Officers, Member and there would be stakeholder engagement by means of seeking written representations from members of the public, which would focus on the terms of reference;

l)     Interviews with officers and members would be private discussions;

m)  CVs would be sought from suitably qualified professionals of local government to establish a suitable Chair and panel members;

n)    Panel members would be remunerated for undertaking the work;

o)    At the end of the review a draft report would be produced;

p)    Any officers or members who were interviewed as part of the review would have the opportunity to review the transcripts of their interview to ensure factual correctness and this would be taken into account prior to the report being finalised.

In response to questions, it was explained:

q)    The wording on the report was directly extracted from the court order, and therefore the Review must commence immediately once the outstanding Court proceedings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.