About
Meetings of Council are held roughly 7 times per year, which includes both Budget Council and Annual Council. Extraordinary meetings can also be called on an ad hoc basis when business needs to be transacted in a timely manner. This meeting comprises all 41 Councillors from all political groups and is chaired by the Mayor. Its role is to consider all non-executive decisions identified within the Council’s Policy Framework, with some decisions identified in legislation as being only able to be made by Council. Alongside this, members of the public are able to submit questions up to midday, seven clear working days prior to the meeting, to which they can also ask a supplementary at the meeting itself if they so wish. A maximum of 2 questions can be submitted per person and they must be no more than 60 words in length. Councillors are also able to submit questions ahead of Council, in addition to motions, which can act as a commitment from the Council as a whole to taking action on a particular topic. The word limit for this is 100 words. For further information, the Policy Framework and the Terms of Reference, outlining the do’s and don’ts for this meeting, can be found in Part 2 of the Council’s Constitution.