A group of councillors sat around a table with an audience

New Committee Structure Introduced

A new committee structure at the Town Council has been introduced, aligned to deliver the council’s emerging strategic plan.

The Town Council will be adopting a new strategy at its June 12th meeting and has commenced the new civic year with changes to the committees designed to deliver the plan, which was subject to public consultation in January-March this year.

Old committee structure

  • Assets and Operations
  • Environment and General Purposes
  • Events and Town Centre Management
  • Finance
  • Personnel
  • Planning and Licensing

New committee structure:

  • Assets and Operations
  • Community
  • Environment and Transport
  • Events
  • Finance
  • Personnel
  • Planning
  • Town Centre

The changes introduce a new Community Committee which will administer the council grant scheme and have responsibility for volunteer programmes, communication and engagement, civic pride, social issues and the Town Awards.

The Events and Town Centre Management committee has been split into two. This creates a Town Centre committee with responsibility for the town centre masterplan, tourism, markets (only excluding the Christmas Market), Christmas lights and the town economy. The Events Committee retains responsibility for celebrations and events, including the Christmas Market, Music Festival and Pumpkin path.

Environment and General Purposes has become Environment and Transport, with responsibility for floriculture, Streetscene, environment and climate change, non-council owned open space, highways, heritage and active travel and transport.

As part of the changes, Finance, Events and Personnel move to meeting quarterly. Planning continues to meet every three weeks and all other committees meet every other month.