Agenda item

The Council considered a report of the Leader of the Council which sought agreement to the funding of a consultative poll in relation to the proposed devolution deal with the North East Combined Authority (for copy see file of Minutes).

A supplementary Appendix 2 was circulated to Members which provided further details regarding the methodology for conducting the poll, the timeline, the cost and the poll questions.

Councillor R Bell expressed disappointment that the Appendix 2 document had not been emailed to all Members when it became available and asked what briefings the Labour Group had on the proposed poll questions prior to today’s meeting.  The report and appendix omitted to outline what the options would be for County Durham if the devolution deal went ahead without the County being part of it.  Referring to the powers of the Elected Mayor, Appendix 2 stated that these were not yet clear, yet the Government was clear that it wanted powerful Elected Regional Mayors.

Councillor Henig replied that the questions and wording for the proposed poll had been prepared by Durham University and had only been available this week.  Councillor Henig informed Councillor Bell that he would have provided a briefing to any political group and apologised that the Appendix 2 had not been circulated by email.  It was unknown what the options might be for the County should it not be part of the devolution deal and it was not right to speculate on this.

In preparing the poll questions and background information the University had attempted to demonstrate that some aspects of the devolution deal were fluid.  The Bill for devolution had not yet been passed in Parliament and amendments to it had been tabled as recently as Monday of this week.  The Council could only put before the electorate what was currently known and the results of the poll would be discussed once these were known.  If there was a negative result for the devolution deal, options would need to be considered.

While it was clear that an Elected Mayor was part of the devolution deal, it was not clear cut that this would be a powerful Elected Regional Mayor.  Discussions were ongoing regarding voting arrangements around the Mayor and other areas of the country were still considering this.

Councillor Shuttleworth suggested that the poll question should have been a simple yes/no answer and asked whether the poll would be binding on the Council.

Councillor Henig replied that only full Council or Cabinet had the legal power to decide on the devolution deal.  The poll was not a referendum, but even if it was, only Council or Cabinet could make the decision.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services added that in legislation, apart from certain areas where a referendum could be conducted, the result of the poll was not binding on the Council.