Suffolk Coastal is a democratically run organisation - in simple
terms, the people who make the key policy decisions about the
services it provides are councillors who are elected by local
residents every four years.
Suffolk Coastal has
55
councillors representing
34 electoral wards. Following
elections on 5 May 2011 the Council is
Conservative controlled with the Conservatives holding 43 seats,
the Liberal Democrats 5 seats, Labour 4 seats and Independents 2
seats.
A by-election is due to be held on Thursday, 9
February 2012 to fill the vacant Kesgrave East seat held by
Conservative
councillor John Klaschka who died suddenly on 26 October
2011.
The Leader of the Council and Cabinet
The Leader of the Council is elected by councillors
and provides the political leadership of the Council, selects the
members of the Cabinet and chairs and manages
its business and work programme. Each Cabinet member has their own
'portfolio' or area of responsibility.
Decisions about services and the way that the Council is run are
made individually or collectively by members of the Cabinet.
Council officers then implement these decisions. Decisions
taken by the Cabinet, individual Cabinet members or authorised
officers are recorded on weekly decision notices.
There is a forward plan which lists all the key decisions
to be taken in the following four months.
Committees and Full Council
Specialist committees deal with
development control, rights of way and
licensing. The Council also has two
scrutiny committees whose main functions
are to ensure that the Council carries out its
responsibilities properly and to look into decisions made by the
Cabinet, Cabinet members and Council officers to ensure that they
are fair and correct.
Full Council meets once a month and gives
individual councillors the opportunity to raise important issues.
It is also responsible for agreeing the Council's budget, setting
the Council Tax and approving the Council's policy framework.
Full Council is chaired by the
Chairman of the Council.
Meetings and decisions
Many Council
decisions are taken at meetings which are nearly
all open to the public. Very occasionally, parts or all of these
meetings may have to be 'behind closed doors' because the
information is confidential. However, all the decisions taken by
councillors at all their meetings are available to the public, and
can be seen in the
minutes of the meetings (new window) and
decision notices.
The information reports presented to councillors to help them
make their decisions
are available online (new window) 5 days before
the meeting so everyone can see what is being discussed.
More information about the decision making process can be found
in the meetings and decisions section
The Council's Constitution
You can find out more about decision making and the roles
and responsibilities of the Full Council, Cabinet and
committees, and the powers delegated to Council officers in the
Council's Constitution.
Having your say
To ensure that you have a say in what your Council is doing, you
need to be on the electoral roll to guarantee that you have a vote
at the next election - follow this link
for information about registering
to vote.