How decisions are made

Elected Councillors

Councillors are elected to serve in separate Wards at local elections each year and are involved in an agreed structure that makes decisions. 

Annual Council meeting

Following the local elections an annual meeting of the Full Council is held for all 60 Councillors.

At the Annual Council Meeting the party which has won the most seats of the 60 available on the Council chooses a number of Councillors to form the Executive, including the Council Leader, the Cabinet, and Cabinet Panels. 

Executive and Scrutiny

Once the Cabinet has been appointed it makes decisions on behalf of the Council while the Scrutiny function reviews those decisions.

Executive

The Executive acts on behalf of the Full Council to take decisions while the Scrutiny function holds the Executive to account by investigating areas of poor performance or public concern.

Executive arrangements

The Executive makes decisions using three different structures:

Cabinet

The Cabinet is chaired by The Leader and also includes nine other Councillors, who are known as Cabinet Members, and Cabinet Panels.

Cabinet Panels

Each Cabinet Panel deals with a group of services and themes and is responsible for making decisions on behalf of the Council for these services. The Councillors who hold the Portfolio (responsibility) for the relevant services serve on the Cabinet Panels.

Green Decisions

The Executive also use Green Decisions for routine matters.

Scrutiny arrangements

Scrutiny reviews decisions taken using the Scrutiny Board and six Scrutiny Panels.