Policy Development Committee

The Policy Development Committee enables policy development and review to take place before consideration by the Management Committee or Full Council.

What is the role of the Policy Development Committee?

It assists in the development of all aspects of Council Policy which may include drafting new policies or reviewing existing policies. It can respond to requests by the Management Committee to do this work.

The Committee also assists in the development of the Council's budget and policy framework and is a consultee on the draft budget proposals. It can consider whether there are any policies that should be developed to assist future budget setting processes.

Key roles for members of this committee therefore include:-

Reviewing policy and assisting in policy development
Identifying gaps in policy or areas where a particular policy is not working
Feeding community views into policy development

The Policy Development Committee has a workplan which it considers at each meeting. This lists all the known items that the Committee will be considering over the upcoming months.

What is its membership?

The Policy Development Committee is made up of 15 Councillors and its membership is appointed by the Council. The full membership of the Committee can be found from the link on the left of the screen.

When does the Committee meet?

The Policy Development Committee meets 6 times a year, usually on a Monday evening at 6.30 pm at the Council Offices. Members of the public are welcome to attend and if you want to speak at the Committee please refer to Guidance for Speaking at Meetings (pdf, 23kb) (opens in a new window) .

Appointing Working Groups

In order to help fulfil its function the Committee is able to appoint smaller working groups from its membership in order to carry out work on a particular policy.

In this way it may undertake in-depth research or seek views through consultation in the development of policy.

Recent work by these groups has included the development of a new Sports Development Strategy.

There are currently working groups developing a new Housing Strategy and undertaking a review of Planning Policy Guidance in relation to Open Spaces, Sport and Recreation.

Finding the Terms of Reference

Full Terms of Reference for the Committee are contained in Part A, Article 6 of the Council's Constitution and the Committee's Procedural Rules are contained in Part B, Procedural Rules of the Council's Constitution.