Decision Making

Full Council
Full Council carry out the following functions;

• Appointing the Leader, Deputy and Members of the Cabinet

• Agreeing and/or amending  the terms of reference for Committees & deciding how they are made up and making appointments for them

• Appointing representatives to outside bodies unless the appointment is an Executive function or has been delegated by the Council

• Adopting the scheme of allowances for Councillors

• Changing the name of the area or granting Freedom of the Borough

• Confirming the appointment of the Head of Paid Service

• Making, amending, re-voking re-enacting or adopting bylaws and promoting or opposing the making of local legislation or personal bills

• All local choice functions which the Council decided should be undertaken by itself rather than the Cabinet

• All other matters which, by law, must be reserved to Council

• Make decisions  about any matter which is covered by the policy framework or the budget.

Cabinet
The Cabinet carries out all of the functions which are not the responsibility of the local authority, they provide leadership the the Council who are responsible for most of the day-to-day decisions. When major issues are discussed or decisions are made by the Cabinet, the meetings are usually open to the public (unless the decisions involve personal or confidential matters).
The Cabinet consists of the Cabinet Leader, together with five Councillors appointed by the Council. Members of the majority party on the Cabinet, called Cabinet Members will have specific areas of responsibility.
The leader and Cabinet Members will be a Councillor elected to this position by the Council. They will hold office until;

• He/she resign from office or

• He/she are suspended or

• He/she is no longer a Councillor or

• On expiry of a 12 month period of their appointment they can be removed by the Council. They can be removed earlier but only if there is a change in political control of the Council

Scrutiny Committee
The roles of the Scrutiny Committee are as follows;

• To review or scrutinise existing policy, and develop new policy for approval by the Cabinet or Council

• To review or scrutinise existing services or functions of the Council

• To hold cabinet decision makers accountable by the call-in of decisions made, but not implemented, or by review or scrutiny of decisions already made

• To influence the Cabinet and Council through reports and recommendations in connection with the above or with the discharge of any of the Council's functions or any other matter affecting the Borough or it's residents

The memberships for the Council's 2009/2010 Committees are as follows:
Key: (C) - Chairman, (V/C) - Vice Chairman, (S/C) - Shadow Chairman, (TBA) - To Be Appointed. First number in brackets denotes number of members on the Committee and second set of numbers in brackets denotes Conservative/Labour split.

Scrutiny (13) (8-5)
Barker, Burroughs, M Coleman, Collins, Easter, Field, Grey, S.Hacon, Hewitt, Page, Reynolds (V/C), Weymouth, Williamson (C)
Named Substitutes:Awaiting Information plus any two Members from the Minority Group

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