Issue - meetings

The Committee is asked to:

1.    Approve the creation of a Joint Finance Partnership between Mole Valley and Spelthorne Borough Council,

2.    Approve the Heads of Terms (HoTs) for an intra-authority agreement between the two Councils as set out at Appendix 2 and delegate authority to the Council’s Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer to finalise all necessary legal arrangements and agreements to implement the partnership in line with the HoTs,

3.    Approve the creation of a Joint Partnership Board and its terms of reference as outlined in Appendix 3 to provide the scrutiny and governance function for the partnership,

4.    Approve the staff structure for the partnership outlined at Appendix 4, subject to consultation and to delegate authority to the Section 151 officer to approve any amendments to the structure following consultation; and

5.    Approve the partnership budget outlined in Appendix 5.

The Committee resolved to:

1.    Approve the creation of a Joint Finance Partnership between Mole Valley District Council and Spelthorne Borough Council,

2.    Approve the Heads of Terms for an Intra-Authority Agreement between the two Councils as set out at Appendix 2 of the report and delegate authority to the Council’s Section 151 Officer and the Interim Group Head of Corporate Governance to finalise all necessary legal arrangements and agreement to implement the partnership in line with the Heads of Terms,

3.    Approve the creation of a Joint Partnership Board and its terms of reference as outlined in Appendix 3 of the report to provide the scrutiny and governance function for the partnership,

4.    Approve the staff structure for the partnership outlined at Appendix 5, subject to consultation and to delegate authority to the Section 151 Officer to approve any amendments to the structure following consultation; and

5.    Approve the partnership budget outlined in Appendix 4 of the report.

The Committee considered a report on the proposed Finance Service Partnership with Mole Valley District Council.

The Committee were advised that the proposed partnership would not result in any job losses either at Spelthorne Borough Council (SBC) nor at Mole Valley District Council (MVDC). The Leader expressed that this initiative was not driven by cost savings but that it would provide resilience across both Councils.

Concerns were raised about security surrounding the financial information held by SBC. The Chief Finance Officer advised that stringent security measures would be implemented to ensure that only information need to facilitate a finance service partnership would be available to MVDC.

The Committee resolved to:

1.    Approve the creation of a Joint Finance Partnership between Mole Valley District Council and Spelthorne Borough Council,

2.    Approve the Heads of Terms for an Intra-Authority Agreement between the two Councils as set out at Appendix 2 of the report and delegate authority to the Council’s Section 151 Officer and the Interim Group Head of Corporate Governance to finalise all necessary legal arrangements and agreement to implement the partnership in line with the Heads of Terms,

3.    Approve the creation of a Joint Partnership Board and its terms of reference as outlined in Appendix 3 of the report to provide the scrutiny and governance function for the partnership,

4.    Approve the staff structure for the partnership outlined at Appendix 5, subject to consultation and to delegate authority to the Section 151 Officer to approve any amendments to the structure following consultation; and

5.    Approve the partnership budget outlined in Appendix 4 of the report.