Members considered a report setting out the duty placed on local authorities in the Localism Act 2011 to administer the Community Right to Challenge.  The Community Right to Challenge allowed relevant bodies to express an interest in running Council services and placed a duty on local authorities to consider expressions of interest.  Where expressions of interest were accepted a full tender process for future delivery of that service would have to be conducted.

The report proposed that Members adopted a policy that aligned the management of the Community Right to Challenge within existing budget setting processes and ensured the Council placed a priority on the cost to the district and the quality of service delivered when drawing up any tender document that is required as a result of an expression of interest under the Community Right to Challenge.

The Portfolio Holder for Planning and Improvement introduced the report highlighting that there were a number of complexities in the way in which the various activities carried out by the Council interacted.  As a result of this, any change to one service may have an unforeseen effect on other services.  In order to limit the impact of any changes to services, the Council had developed a process that was a simple as possible.

Members noted that the Community Right to Challenge simply enabled organisations to trigger a procurement process and did not provide any guarantees as to the eventual supplier of services.  It was also stressed that the processes needed to align with the Council’s budget timetable.

In response to a question, the Policy and Performance Manager reported that the final guidance issued by the Government did not preclude larger companies from having a role in the Community Right to Challenge as long as they were in partnership with a sponsoring local organisation.

Members commended the report that had been presented to the meeting and thanked Officers for the work that had been undertaken in developing the timetable.

Resolved that Council be recommended to:

(a)   Approve the Sevenoaks District Council Community Right to Challenge Policy; and

(b)   Delegate authority to the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Improvement to agree any final adjustment to the Community Right to Challenge Policy that may result from the finalisation of Government policy and statutory guidance.