Issue - meetings

Option 1:For the City Council to engage individually with the process for the forthcoming major infrastructure projects. 

Option 2:For the City Council to support working as a consortium of local authorities engaging in the major infrastructure process in the manner described in the report.

Option 3: For the City Council to decline to engage with the projects.

Advantages

Engaging in a consortium will be a complex task involving a new governance arrangement and senior officer time. To engage in the process alone might be simpler administratively.

This would enable the City Council to share skills and resources with other local authorities to manage the process. It can use its expertise to concentrate on local and strategic considerations whilst not having to micro manage the project. Negotiations undertaken by a grouping of local authorities will inevitably be stronger than as individual Councils.

In the current climate where the Council has no spare capacity to engage effectively in these projects taking no part could avoid senior officer time being consumed on the projects. 

Disadvantages

The City Council could not handle cases of this magnitude with its existing staff resources.  Considerable amounts of work would be outsourced and the task of coordinating inputs with communities and agencies outside the district would be large.  

There will inevitable be some aspects of detail over which the local authorities might disagree.

The City Council’s reputation would be harmed and the communities on both sides of the arguments would feel un-represented.

Risks

The risk of a largely parochial and uncoordinated set of responses to the major infrastructure projects would be high.  The reputation of the local authority would be harmed if it were unable to engage strategically in the inquiry process.  There would also be little opportunity to secure economic benefits for the district linked to growth of this nature because the council would not be seen as credible.

This option has less risks so long as the local authorities provide a united front.  Without such a front the developers could find advantages in dividing opinion.

None of the potential benefits arising from the schemes would be championed for the local community by other bodies.

Considerations for the Local Impact Statements could be inaccurately put forward without challenge.