The Councillor Call for Action (CCfA) is a process introduced in
April 2009 through the Local Government & Public Involvement in
Health Act 2007 that is intended to put local councillors at the
forefront of dealing with issues of concern in their local
communities. It gives them a central role in calling to account the
work of council services (including services provided by the
council’s partners) at a local level.
When concerns are identified - either as a result of information
from individuals or community groups, or through a councillor’s own
observations - councillors should be able to trigger a response
from service providers to help ensure the concerns are dealt with.
As a last resort, if a problem cannot be solved informally, the
CCfA can enable local councillors to refer the issue to the
relevant
scrutiny committee.
You can view Suffolk Coastal's protocol for handling potential
CCfA matters by following the link below:
Follow this link for help with downloading and opening PDF files.
Decision making and formulating policy
Full Council meets once a month and gives
individual councillors the opportunity to raise important issues.
It is a forum where councillors can exercise their representative
function, and one which can underpin policy formulation and
performance review. It deals with matters such as:
- Agreeing the Council's budget
- Setting the Council Tax
- Approving the Council's policy framework
- Adopting and changing the Constitution
- Electing the Council's Leader
Most day-to-day decisions are made by the
Cabinet (the Council's 'executive'), which
consists of nine councillors appointed by the
Leader of the Council, or by individual Cabinet
members, who are each responsible for a particular area of the
Council’s work. Some decisions are delegated to Council
officers.
The Council also has a number of
regulatory committees which make what are
called 'quasi-judicial' decisions to do with planning, licensing
and rights of way. Some councillors will sit on the Council’s
development control committees, which make decisions on some of the
planning applications received by the Council. Others will sit on
the Council's licensing committees, which are responsible
for licensing policy and the granting and reviewing of various
kinds of licences, and some will sit on the Rights of Way Committee
which considers issues to do with public rights of way.
Councillors can influence policy as members of
committees which scrutinise decisions and hold
the Cabinet to account for their actions or as members of task
groups which help the Cabinet develop policy.
Membership of outside bodies such as regional, health or local
partnership groups, local management boards, local community bodies
or school governor committees also enables councillors to influence
local policies.
More information about the role and responsibilities of the
councillor, the Cabinet and committees, and how decisions are made
can be found in the Council's
Constitution.
Register of councillor interests
A register of councillor interests is available for inspection
at our Woodbridge offices during office hours.
Register of gifts and hospitality
Offers of gifts and or hospitality made to councillors and
officers are recorded in the Council's official register which
is available for inspection
at our Woodbridge offices during office hours.
If you would like a copy of the register or any of the
individual entries contained in it please email
committee.section@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk