CHANGES ANNOUNCED TO CABINET AND SHADOW CABINET PORTFOLIOS

Changes have been announced to which councillors look after which areas of Thanet District Council’s business.

Each Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet portfolio holder will take responsibility for services relating to one of the four priority themes in the Strategy for Taking the Council to a New Level, with an additional portfolio holder covering Partnerships and Tourism. The strategy states that by 2030 Thanet should be “A place where individuals are able to reach their full potential, where there are opportunities for everyone in an environment that celebrates its natural beauty and rich and diverse heritage.”

The four priority themes in the strategy are:

• People represented by Community Services – “working together to make Thanet safe and improve the quality of life for all”,
• Place represented by Environmental Services – “keeping Thanet beautiful by making the place clean, green and a healthy place to be”,
• Prosperity represented by Economic Development and Regeneration – “attracting employment especially by supporting tourism and the green economy”, and
• Performance - “Delivering services we are proud of; that make a difference and provide value for money for our residents.”

The services allocated to each portfolio and the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members responsible for these are:

Portfolio	Cabinet Member (Conservative)	Shadow Cabinet Member (Labour)
Economic Development and Regeneration (which also includes the Port of Ramsgate, harbours, strategic planning and Dreamland)	Cllr. Bob Bayford	Cllr. Clive Hart
Community Services (which includes housing need and homelessness, private sector housing, housing intervention, the Margate Task Force, licensing and land charges, community safety, parking, sport, art, museums, the Thanet Coast Project, indoor and outdoor leisure, play services and events)	Cllr. Chris Wells	Cllr. Iris Johnston
Environmental Services (which includes waste and recycling, street cleaning, public toilets, environmental health, coastal protection, parks, allotments, building control, general estate management, crematorium and cemeteries, asset management, planning applications, planning enforcement and conservation)	Cllr. Simon Moores	Cllr. Alan Poole
Performance (which includes financial services, governance and risk, legal services, democratic services, contract management and corporation information and communications)	Cllr. Martin Wise	Cllr. Richard Nicholson
Partnerships and Tourism (which includes shared services, such as East Kent Housing, human resources, East Kent Audit, customer services, revenues and benefits and IT services)	Cllr. Alasdair Bruce	Cllr. Michelle Fenner

Leader of the Council, Cllr. Bob Bayford, said: “While it may surprise some that these changes are being made so soon after our Annual Council meeting, given the election results, until we had that meeting, we didn’t know who would be the council’s Leader. To have tried to change the portfolios ahead of that decision being made would have been exceptionally presumptuous.”

Labour Leader of the Opposition Clive Hart says: "The new portfolio roles and responsibilties are set by the Leader of the Council and, as such, we in opposition have no say in the detail of their make up. Indeed, we may well have done things very differently. However, in the interests of cross-party working, our shadow team will do our very best with each of our individual portfolio areas for the people of Thanet".

Cllr. Bayford added: “The council has four clear internal priorities – people, place, prosperity and performance – and it’s important that we match portfolios to those priorities. Shared services is also a major project for this council and that’s why there’s a Cabinet Member specifically appointed to look after that area, our partnership work in general and tourism, which is vital to our area.  We believe that this structure means that the council will be delivering on all of its principles to improve the service we provide to our residents, businesses and customers.”