Audit and regulatory

Thursday evening saw a meeting of the audit and regulatory committee.

The meeting considered a range of reports include the council's annual
audit letter from the audit commission, other all a good report with
just a few items of note for further attention including the ongoing
issue of the funds tied up in the Icelandic banks, for which the news
at current is reasonable optimist that the council will get back
most of the money invested.

This was the last report back in this form from the audit commission
with the emphasis in the future been on the comprehensive area
assessment (CAA).

The CAA is the framework that the government uses to monitor and
assess council and replaces the current process under which the
council has been rated as excellent.

My concern that I raised at meeting is with the new framework
concentrating on wider issues and partnerships will the audit
commission still be able to look and check as closely on local
council's something which the auditor assured the meeting will not
change.

The meeting also considered the as noted previously the new
development control protocols with the committee agreeing with
recommendation from the development control committee that 3 minutes is
long enough for public speaking as opposed to the change to 5
recommended by the Standard's Committee.

The meeting also asked for a note of clarification for councillors around
pre application discussions as the new protocol recommends having a
planning officer in attendance for such discussions, the clarification been
for a what point this is needed as local councillors can have discussions
with a whole range if groups and bodies over plans and aspirations for
certain areas with many never even reaching the planning application stage
and is it worth taking up officer time for some of these discussions ?