The County Council is made up of 54 County Councillors (known as Members) whom you elect every four years. The County Council is the overall policymaking body although a great deal of the detailed work is left to Committees or Working Parties.
Councillors are elected every four years; the last elections were held in June 2001. Each Councillor represents an area known as an 'Electoral Division'. Information about County Councillors and their areas is available here.
The Council has many responsibilities and has divided them up amongst its Executive and a number of other Committees. The Council has adopted a Constitution which sets out the structure in detail and how it will operate.
The County Council has introduced a modernised system with the creation of a single Executive of 10 Councillors, taking on the decision making powers and duties of the former Policy, Education, Arts & Libraries, Environment and Social Services Committees. Each member of the Executive is delegated responsibility for a specific service area and is known as an Executive Member.
The County Council has also created four new Overview/Scrutiny Committees with the power to investigate policy issues and question members of the Executive, commission reports, invite outside experts to give evidence and make recommendations to the Executive and the County Council. The role of Scrutiny will provide an important check on the Executive.
Representatives of the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and representatives of parent governors, all have seats on the relevant Scrutiny Committee.
The Executive and all other Committees have "terms of reference" which set out their powers and responsibilities, in other words what they can and cannot do. Sometimes they cannot make a decision, either because they do not have the power to do so, or because they need the agreement of the Council or another Committee. You may have noticed that some of the minutes of Committees do not have an asterisk or "star" by the side of them - that means the decision has to be confirmed by the parent Committee and/or Council.
The Executive meets around 12 times a year. The Council and most of the Committees meet eight times a year, usually at County Hall. Council meetings are very formal with each Member having their own seat. A seating plan is available in the public gallery so that you can see who is who. Copies of the agenda and order paper that list the matters to be discussed are available at the meeting. The position at other meetings is less formal and depends on the circumstances.
The County Council is required by law to give a minimum of 5 days' notice of most meetings and allow access to certain types of information. The Council also has to publish a Forward Plan of Key Decisions to be made by the Council's Executive, which are likely to be of particular political, financial or geographical significance. The dates and times of the Executive and most of the Committees are shown in the Council's Calendar of Meetings, which is on display at County Hall, Exeter and public libraries. A copy is also available on this website. Notice boards and monitor screens will show you where the meeting will actually take place. If you are in any doubt please ask at the reception desk. The calendar does not include the dates of all such meetings or of working parties, as some are arranged as and when required. If you are interested in a meeting that does not appear on the calendar, please contact the Committee Secretariat & Members' Services Unit at County Hall.
It is difficult to say how long a meeting will last or when a particular matter will be discussed. If you are interested in a matter that is to be discussed at a meeting it is best to come along for the start of the meeting. That might mean you will have to wait a while to hear the matter in which you are interested but that is better than missing it altogether. Exeter. A map of Exeter, showing the site of County Hall is available here - 26.5 Kbytes.
The Executive and Committees also meet normally in Exeter. The full Council meets in February to agree the budget and set the level of Council Tax for the following year.
Obviously, members of the Executive or a Committee itself - whose names are listed on the bottom of the agenda - but who else? There will also normally be a number of Officers from the relevant department(s) whose function it is to advise the Executive or Committee. Normally there would be at least one representative from the relevant Directorate for the matter under discussion as well as the County Solicitor (to advise on any legal queries). In addition the Committee Secretary will be present to record the decisions of the meeting and to advise on procedure matters and to assist anyone else who attends. Members normally sit together in their political groups. Seats are normally available at the back of the room for members of the press and the public. Copies of the agenda are also available from the Committee Secretariat & Members' Services Unit.
Meetings of the County Council, the Executive and Committees, are normally open to the public.
By law members of the public have a right of access to certain types of information held by the Council. For example, you can see the reports going to the meetings to see if they are accurate.
There may be occasions when the public is asked to leave a meeting or where they may not be able to see a particular report because it has to be discussed in private. If that happens the reason has to be given in advance. The County Council cannot itself invent reasons - the reason has to be allowed by law, such as protecting a person's privacy.
The detailed rules are set out in the Access to Information Procedure Rules in the Council's Constitution.
There is no opportunity for members of the public to speak at or participate in the proceedings of any meeting. If you wish to make your views known on an issue or to raise a particular matter the best way to do that is to lobby your local County Councillor to do so on your behalf.
The Council has agreed to introduce a scheme to allow members of the public to ask questions or present petitions to the Chairmen of both the Executive and Standards Committees. Details of this scheme are available from the Committee Secretariat/Members' Services Unit.
In addition to being discussed at committee meetings, many proposals under consideration by the Council are subject to public consultation and are publicised through press adverts, street notices, exhibitions, the internet etc. You can often use pre-paid forms to respond or you can write in or send an electronic mail message.
The first part of an agenda follows a standard pattern with
Members being asked to approve the minutes of the previous
meeting. Members can only question the accuracy of the minutes
and not raise matters that were discussed previously. The next
item is one that enables the chairman to raise matters that are
not included on the agenda - if they are important or urgent
enough. It is the Chairman's decision alone.
After dealing with those items the Chairman will move on to the
other items on the agenda, dealing with each in turn. The
appropriate Officer will introduce the item and then there will
be general discussion on that subject (known as a debate). The
Chairman's job is to ensure that there is an orderly discussion
and that a decision is taken. A decision may be made on the basis
of an Officer's recommendation (as set out in any written report
or made at the meeting) or on the basis of a suggestion made by a
Member at the meeting. The way in which decisions are taken at
meetings often seems complex but as with most things it is not
difficult to understand if you know what is happening. The
following paragraphs attempt to explain the procedure that is
followed.
When a Member makes a recommendation (known as a Motion or
Proposition) the Chairman will ask Members to debate it. When, in
the Chairman's view there has been sufficient discussion, the
Member who moved the motion would be given the chance to speak
again. This is known as "replying to the debate".
Immediately after that Member has spoken, the Chairman will ask
the Members to vote. Any motion must be formally
"seconded" by another Member before it can be voted
upon. However it is often the case that during a debate on a
motion another Member will suggest that it should be altered in
some way, perhaps by adding or taking out words (an
"amendment"). If this happens the meeting will also
have to discuss the amendment. At the end of that debate the Member who suggested the amendment will also be given the chance
to speak - to "reply to the debate" - followed
immediately by the mover of the original motion. Only one
amendment can be dealt with at a time. If an amendment is agreed
or carried it then becomes a substantive motion (the original
motion is considered to have been defeated) to which further
amendments may be made. If the amendment is not agreed then the
meeting will vote on the original proposal. There may, of course,
then be further amendments. Decisions can be reached by agreement
or by a formal show of hands. They are then recorded in the
minutes, which go on to the County Council.
Some Members speak more often than others. This is because the
political parties on the Council often appoint
"spokespersons" who will take the lead in any
discussions at the relevant meeting.
The way in which meetings are organised and conducted is governed by the
Council's Constitution
and, in particular, by the Council's Procedure
Rules and the Executive and Overview/Scrutiny Procedure Rules set out in that document, which lays
down the rules to be followed by the Council and Committees in
conducting their business.
An agenda is a document that lists the matters to be
considered and the order in which they will be taken. The order
can only be altered by the meeting. There is no set time at which
a particular item will come up and no time limit on discussion of
each item. The Agenda and Minutes of the Executive and the main Committees of the Council are published on the Internet.
In the case of the Executive, the Council also has to publish a Forward Plan
of key decisions to be taken over the next 4 months which are judged to be of
political, financial or geographical significance.
A facility has been developed to allow these documents to be searched to locate matters you are interested in. You may search for information from a single committee or a combination of committees.
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This page last updated 14 November 2003
© Copyright Devon County Council, 1995.