The Council's Constitution

The Council operates under Executive Arrangements where many of the decisions are the responsibility of the Council's Leader and are delegated to the Council's Executive, a body of ten of the elected members who form the 'cabinet' of the Council. The Executive Arrangements and the structure of the Council's committees and other decision making bodies are defined in the Council's Constitution, which is reviewed and updated by the Council at least once a year. The Constitution also includes the Council's Codes and Protocol, Rules of Procedure and Financial Regulations.

The role of the six Scrutiny Committees is to help develop the Council's policies, to review the effectiveness of existing policies and procedures, and to scrutinise the Executive's work and decision making. The Scrutiny Committees are not decision-making bodies; they are an important part of the Council's democratic oversight and accountability arrangements. These six committees will use sub-groups to do more detailed investigations and reviews.

Some types of decisions cannot be made by the Executive. For those the Council has in place a number of Regulatory and Governance Committees. They are each empowered by the Council to deal with specific areas of work and specific types of decisions: such as planning permissions and licensing applications.