Bolton In The 21st Century

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This is the text of Cllr. Clifford Morris's talk, taken directly from the Deane-Cum-Heaton Labour Party's Branch minutes.

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Branch member Cllr. Clifford Morris was introduced and addressed the meeting. In the reorganisation of the Council administration and its committees there are three possible structures:

{short description of image}  A directly elected Mayor with delegated powers

{short description of image}  A directly elected Mayor with a Council Manager

{short description of image}  A Council Leader with a Cabinet and Scrutiny Committees

Bolton Council has selected the third option to run for twelve months to see how it works. However, the necessary legislation to enable the reorganisation to become effective has still not been passed by the Government.

The Leader is Cllr. Bob Howarth and the cabinet is as follows:

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Portfolio Holder

Environment

Guy Harkin

Education

Linda Thomas

Culture, Arts, Libraries, Museums

John Byrne

Social Exclusion

Frank White

Best Value and Modernising

Michael Kilcoyne

Social Services and Health

Clifford Morris

Housing

Noel Spencer

Direct Services

Donald Grime

Human Resources

Rosa Kay
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The Chairs of the four Scrutiny Committees have also been announced.

Under the new structure the full Council makes policy decisions and also sets the budget. Each Portfolio Holder can have organised policy forums made up of Councillors and co-opted members.

The second part of the reorganisation is the establishment of Area Forums. Generally the Bolton Wards have been grouped in threes and Deane-cum-Heaton has been put together with Smithills and Halliwell. Each Area Forum has a budget of £30,000 and their main objective is “to be concerned with the well-being of the community” that they serve. The Forums will consist of regular meetings of all the Ward Councillors and the general public of the area. Each has an Officer to administer it and decisions made at meetings will be forwarded to the full Council for final decision.

Clifford’s presentation was followed by a question and answer session in which all members took part.

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