South Gloucestershire councillors are set to approve a new constitution, introducing a committee system of governance, at the Council’s Annual General Meeting next Wednesday (23rd May).
The changes follow a majority vote at Council in March when members approved plans to move to the committee system from the current Leader and Cabinet governance model.
Once approved, the changes will mean that all 70 councillors will be involved in decision-making, as members of 10 committees.
As well as approving the new constitution at next week’s Council meeting, Councillors will also be asked to agree the new committee structure, and to confirm appointments to key roles.
Committee members, including chairs, will be allocated according to the political make-up of the council
Each committee will have three lead members, one from each party, of whom one will become committee chair.
The council will continue to have the ceremonial roles of chair and vice-chair, but the current Executive Leader role will be replaced by a Constitutional Leader, who will represent the council on the Local Enterprise Partnership and other national, sub-regional and local forums.
Full Council will remain the main forum for debating major policy issues including setting the annual budget and council tax and will make appointments to various bodies. It will also deal with items referred up to it from committees.
The majority of committees will meet on an eight-week cycle, with some sub-committees meeting between the main committee dates.
The Council AGM takes place at the Council Chamber, Civic Centre, High Street, Kingswood and begins at 7pm.
More info: Agenda for Council AGM on 23rd May 2012 (SGC)
Source: South Gloucestershire Council
