How Decisions are Made

The Council is made up of locally elected Councillors who make decisions on how to provide local services on behalf of local people.

Decisions are made by democratic bodies, including the Full Council, The Cabinet, and other committees that Councillors are appointed to.

Meetings of these committees are normally open to the public. A full description of these bodies and meetings can be found in the Committees webpages which describe the purpose of each body.

Details of key decisions that have been taken are posted on the Decisions webpage.

Videos of meetings (webcasts) and see decisions being taken.

In summary the Council's decision-making structure is:

• Full Council at Full Council Councillors decide the Council's overall policies and set the budget each year.
• The Cabinet the Council appoints the Cabinet which has, as a main role, the task of developing and implementing policy on behalf of the Council. The Cabinet has to make decisions which are in line with the Council's overall policies and budget. If it wishes to make a decision which is outside the budget or policy framework, this must be referred to the Full Council to decide.
• The Forward Plan key decisions that the Council plans to make in the coming months are published in the Council’s Forward Plan.
• Regulatory Committees such as
  • Planning Committee and
  • Licensing Committee

The Council also appoints regulatory committees to perform the Council's regulatory functions such as development control (planning issues) and licensing. The Council appoints other specialist committees from time to time.

• General Purposes Committee is responsible for all non-Cabinet decisions and is the ‘parent’ committee for Planning, Licensing, Pensions Panel and Dismissal and Grievance Appeals.
• Appointments Panels. These committees (or sub-committees) of the Council appoint chief officers and deputy chief officers. Membership is determined by the Leader and the Chair of the General Purposes Committee (or by their nominees). For more information please see Part 4, Section K of the Council's Constitution.
• Officer delegated decisions are clearly described in Part Three, Section E of the Council's Constitution. Certain types of decision must by law be delegated to an officer rather than being determined by Members. These include the appointment and dismissal of officers below Deputy Chief Officer level, discharge of the duties of the Returning Officer in elections and the Proper Officer functions. For the great majority of local authority functions it is a matter of local choice for the Council whether they are exercised by Members or delegated to officers.

The framework that lays out how the Council is governed is the Council's Constitution which describes how the Council makes decisions and the role of Full Council, The Cabinet and various committees.

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