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The council publishes details well in advance of many of the important things that the cabinet and individual cabinet members are due to consider. It does this in a forward plan, which all councils have to prepare. It must:
- describe what the decision is about;
- say who is going to take the decision (either the full cabinet, an individual cabinet member or an officer);
- say when the decision is due to be taken;
- show how the council is going to consult others on each issue;
- describe how people can make representations about each issue; and
- list the publicly available documents that the decision maker will consider.
The council has to make its forward plan available to the public and update it monthly. The published plan must show everything likely to be the subject of a key decision (see details below) in the next four months. Copies of the forward plan are freely available in council offices, local links, libraries and on this website. The council also sends copies to other organisations it works with, including town and parish councils.
The forward plan is submitted to each meeting of the Full Council, and councillors can debate issues included in it.
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Please note: It is provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file and will therefore require a reader to view it. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for doing this are provided on the website).
Key decisions
A key decision is an executive decision that is likely to:
- Lead to significant spending or savings
- Have significant effects on people living or working in two or more electoral wards in North Lincolnshire
The Government has not defined the term 'significant'. Each council is free to make its own arrangements for decisions within the definition of a 'key decision'. The Government is currently reviewing the definition of a key decision.
Key decisions can be made by, or on behalf of, the council by:
- The cabinet
- An individual cabinet member
- An officer of the council
- A committee of the cabinet
The council must publish in the forward plan all key decisions to be made on its behalf.
After decisions are taken
Once a decision has been made, the council will publish a record of the decision within two working days. The decisions again will be available for inspection along with the report or reports that were presented to councillors when making the decisions. Decisions are also published on this website.
This applies to all decisions made by the council, not only those 'key' ones listed in a forward plan.
In certain cases, though the decisions will be recorded for you to see, the report itself will not be available if it is classified as confidential. But this will only be in a minority of cases.
Comments
You are welcome to raise any issue on the forward plan. To do so please contact Jo Findley on 01724 296235 or Alex Dawson on 01724 296433. Email: joanne.findley@northlincs.gov.uk or alex.dawson@northlincs.gov.uk.
You can also comment on the individual items listed in the forward plan. To do this contact the officer listed in the final column entitled 'who to contact for more information' in the attached Portable Document Format (PDF) above.