How the Council operates...
The Council is composed of
56 Councillors with approximately one-third
elected three years in four. Councillors are democratically
accountable to residents of their Ward. The overriding duty of
Councillors is to the whole community, but they have a special duty
to their constituents, including those who did not vote for
them.
Councillors have to agree to follow a code of conduct to
ensure high standards in the way they undertake their duties. The
Standards
Committee trains and advises them on ethical issues and on the
code of conduct.
All Councillors meet together as the Council. Meetings of the
Council are normally open to the public. Here Councillors decide
the Council's overall policy framework and set the budget each
year. The Council appoints the executive who are a small number of
Councillors who make the day to day decisions about how the Council
is run. However, the executive has to act within the policy
framework and budget decided by the Council. The Council also
appoints committees called
Scrutiny
Committees which examine the work and the decisions of the
executive. There is also a
Development Control Committee,
Licensing
and Regulatory Committee,
Standards Committee and
Audit Committee. The
Council sets the policy framework and budget and has
debates and discussion involving the community to decide
those.
How decisions are made
The executive is that part of the Council which is responsible
for most day-to-day decisions. The executive at Crewe and Nantwich
Council is made up of Councillors chosen by the full Council plus a
Leader and a Deputy Leader also chosen by the Council. When major
decisions are to be discussed or made, these are published in the
executive's Forward Plan insofar as they can be anticipated. If
these major decisions are to be discussed with council officers at
a meeting of the executive, this will generally be open for the
public to attend except where personal or confidential matters are
being discussed. The executive has to make decisions which are in
line with the Council's policy framework and budget. If it wishes
to make a decision which is outside the budget or policy framework,
this must be referred to the Council as a whole to decide. In many
authorities the executive is called 'the cabinet'. At Crewe and
Nantwich it has been decided to call the executive 'the Board'.
Scrutiny
The Council has appointed several Scrutiny
committees (these committees have different names at different
Councils). The Council will determine some of the work to be
undertaken by these Committees, but each Committee will also review
decisions of the Board and determine part of its own work
programme. They allow citizens to have a greater say in Council
matters by holding public inquiries into matters of local concern.
These lead to reports and recommendations which advise the
executive and the Council as a whole on its policies, budget and
service delivery. Scrutiny committees also monitor the decisions of
the executive. They can 'call-in' a decision which has been made by
the executive but not yet implemented. This enables them to
consider whether the decision is the right one. They may recommend
that the executive reconsider the decision if they are unhappy with
it. They may also be consulted by the executive or the Council on
forthcoming decisions and the development of policy.