Council
The Council is currently
composed of 50 Councillors, who meet together as The Council. The
Council meet together approximately every two months and the public
can generally attend and ask questions.
At Council, Councillors decide
the council's overall policies and set the budget each year. The
Council appoints the Leader, Deputy Leader and the
Cabinet.
The Council also appoints
Councillors to its Scrutiny Committees, Regulatory and other
committees. The Scrutiny committees are
the primary means of holding the Cabinet to account, and they, in
turn report direct to the Council. The Mayor chairs the meetings of
Council and acts as a non-political Civic Head.
Coronavirus legislation which allowed
local authorities to hold virtual meetings rather than traditional
‘in person’ meetings expired on 6 May. A High Court
case decided in late April that earlier local government
legislation cannot be used to hold remote meetings, and therefore
we have now reverted back to traditional ‘in person’
meetings.