Council Structure
The City Council has 52 Councillors who serve 22 Wards across
the Carlisle District.
Following local elections in May 2012, the political make up of
the City Council is:
- 27 Labour Councillors;
- 20 Conservative Councillors;
- 2 Liberal Democrat Councillors; and
- 2 Independent Councillors.
Each Ward within the Carlisle District is represented by between
1 and 3 City Councillors in both the urban and rural areas. You can
find a map of Wards and Councillors in the downloadable documents below.
Carlisle City Councillors are elected for four-year terms by
thirds; that is, at each election, a third of the Councillors (or
as near as possible) are elected. Elections are held every year
except in the year when the county council election is held. There
will therefore be elections in 2012, 2014 and 2015.
Model of Governance
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007
requires Carlisle City Council to make changes to its current
governance and decision making arrangements.
The new arrangements came into operation immediately after the
elections in May 2011. You can find these in the downloadable documents below.
Council
All 52 Councillors meet together as the Council. Meetings of the
Council are normally open to the public. The Council decide the
Council’s overall policies and set the budget each year. Council
will appoint the Leader for a four year
term of office, the Leader will then nominate his/her Deputy Leader
and Executive Portfolio Holders and delegates powers and
responsibilities to them under the Leader’s
Scheme of Delegation. The Council also appoints committees,
such as Development Control Committee, to carry out certain
functions and holds the Executive to account for its actions by
questioning Members of the Executive. Council also appoint Overview
and Scrutiny Panels to review the decisions of the Executive and
assist with the formulation of Policy.
Executive
The Executive is the part of the
Council which is responsible for most day to day decisions. The
Executive is made up of the Leader and Councillors whom he/she
appoints to the Executive as Portfolio Holders. When major
decisions are to be discussed or made, these are published in the
Leader’s Forward
Plan. The Executive meets every four weeks and the meetings are
normally open to members of the public. The Executive has to make
decisions which are in line with the Council’s over all policies
and budget. If it wishes to make a decision which is outside the
budget or policy framework, this must be referred to the Council as
a whole to decide.
Overview and Scrutiny
There are three Overview and Scrutiny
Panels who support the work of the Executive and the Council as
a whole. They allow citizens to have a greater say in Council
matters by holding public inquiries into matters of local concern.
These lead to reports and recommendations which advise the
Executive and the Council as a whole on its policies, budget and
service delivery. Overview and Scrutiny Panels also monitor the
decisions of the Executive using a ‘call in’ process. This enables
them to consider whether the decision is appropriate and they may
recommend that the Executive reconsider the decision. They may also
be consulted by the Executive or the Council on forthcoming
decisions and the development of policy.