Forward Plan

The Council’s Forward Plan contains details of Key Decisions that are to be made by the Cabinet, Cabinet member, committee of Cabinet or an officer in discharging executive functions.

Key Decisions are those executive decisions that are likely to either:

• result in the Local Authority incurring expenditure which is, or the making of savings which are, significant having regard to the Local Authority’s budget for the service or function to which the decision relates (the Council has set this value at £1 million)
• be significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more electoral Divisions.

Before any Key Decision is made, 28 clear days must have passed since details of the matter were included in the Forward Plan.

The Forward Plan will include:

• that a Key Decision is to be made on behalf of the Council
• the matter in respect of which the decision is to be made
• where the decision-maker is an individual, their name and title
• where the decision-maker is a body, its name and members
• the date on, or the period within which the decision will be made
• the documents that will be considered by the decision-maker before a decision is made
• the address from which, subject to any prohibition or restriction on their disclosure, copies of the documents listed are available
• that other documents relevant to those matters may be submitted to the decision maker
• the procedure for requesting details of those documents (if any) as they become available.

The Forward Plan will also highlight any Key Decisions that the Cabinet is due to make where elements of Key Decision reports are expected to be considered in private and the reason why. This would be because the report contains confidential, commercially sensitive or personal information as set out in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). There is information within each Forward Plan that tells you what you should do and how if you feel that any reports that are to be discussed in private should be considered in public.

The document is updated regularly updated and is available for inspection on the Council’s website