Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Stocks and Tolchard.

It was reported that, in accordance with the wishes of the Conservative Group, the membership of the Board had been amended to include Councillor Cunningham in place of Councillor Bye.

The above decision was called-in by Councillors Lewis, Bent, Barnby, Bye, Darling, Tolchard, Stocks and Stockman on 18 December 2015.

The reasons for the call-in are attached together with the Record of Decision and a briefing note prepared for the Board.

The Board considered the details of a call-in by eight Members of the Council of the decision of the Mayor to request the Chief Finance Officer to allocate £10,000 from the 2015/16 Corporate Management budget to enable officers to carry out a feasibility study to explore the potential for and delivery of a helipad in Torbay.

The Chairman highlighted that the signatories to the call-in considered that the decision was contrary to the Policy Framework and contrary to (or not wholly in accordance with) the Council’s Budget and invited the Mayor to answer the Board’s questions.

During the course of the debate, the Mayor indicated that he would rescind his decision whereupon the meeting of the Board adjourned for the Mayor to issue his Record of Decision.

Following the adjournment, the Record of Decision of the Mayor was read to the Board.

Resolved:  that the Board welcomes the Mayor’s decision to rescind his previous decision in relation to funding a feasibility study for a helipad in Torbay. 

However, the Board could not find any evidence that the allocation of £10,000 to fund such a feasibility study would have been in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework.

(Note:  In reaching its resolution, the Board did not ask for the advice of the Monitoring Officer or the Chief Finance Officer on whether or not the original decision of the Mayor was in accordance with the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework given that, by that stage, the decision had been rescinded.)