Runnymede Borough Council constitution

The Council is composed of forty-one Councillors. One third of them are elected each year, in three years out of every four (in the fourth year there is an election for the County Council). Councillors are democratically accountable to residents of their ward. The overriding duty of Councillors is to the whole community, but they have a special duty to their constituents, including those who did not vote for them.

Councillors agree to follow a Code of Conduct to ensure high standards in the way they undertake their duties. The Standards and Audit Committee ensures that they are provided with training and advice on the Code of Conduct.

All Councillors meet together as the Council. Meetings of the Council are normally open to the public. Here Councillors decide on the Council's overall policies and set the budget each year. There is also a variety of procedures which enable committees, political groups, and individual Councillors to ensure that matters of importance to the Borough are debated and that decisions of Committees are reviewed where necessary.

Committees make most organisational decisions. The Council has five functional 'policy' Committees which deal with the provision and administration of the Council's services. Committees also carry out a number of regulatory functions, including dealing with planning applications, licensing and most other regulatory business.

Two specialist Committees deal with licensing and regulatory matters where applicants and objectors have a right to be heard. They may form Sub Committees. Other Sub-Committees may be formed for special projects, particularly if time limited.

Meetings of the Council's Committees are open to the public except where personal or confidential matters are being discussed. There is an opportunity given at Planning Committee, and full Council meetings, for Members of the public to make points or ask questions.

There is an overview and scrutiny Committee (known in Runnymede as the 'Overview and Scrutiny Select Committee’) which supports the work of the other Committees and the Council as a whole. It can allow residents to contribute to the Council's views on matters of local concern, by holding special hearings on particular decisions or topics. The Overview and Scrutiny Select Committee can make reports and recommendations to policy Committees, and the Council as a whole, on its policies, budget and service delivery. The Overview and Scrutiny Select Committee also monitors the decisions of the other Committees. It can 'call-in' a decision which has been made by a Committee but not yet implemented. This enables it to consider whether the decision is appropriate. The Committee may recommend that the policy Committee or Full Council reconsider the decision. It may also be consulted by policy Committees on forthcoming decisions and the development of the policy.

The Overview and Scrutiny Select Committee also functions as the Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee under the Police and Justice Act 2006. In this guise it has power to scrutinise the actions of agencies with crime and disorder responsibilities and can require staff of such agencies to come and answer questions. It must consider matters relevant to crime and disorder that individual Councillors may refer to it. 3

The Council also has Member Working Groups whose work informs the Service Committees and focuses on those issues which are essential in delivery of the Corporate Plan. These Groups do not have decision making powers.