Committee structure

Council

Meetings of the Council are normally open to the public. Here Councillors decide the Council’s overall policies and set the budget each year. Annually, the Council appoints a Cabinet for decision making purposes and a number of Council Committees. The Council is responsible for the overall policy framework and budget.

 

Questions by Members of the Public at full Council

Members of the public may ask questions of Members of the Council, limited to no more than 100 words. The time for such questions shall be limited to 15 minutes in total.

Any person wishing to ask a question shall notify the Senior Member Services Officer or his/her representative no later than 1.00 p.m. two days preceding the day of the meeting at which the question is to be asked, (i.e. by 1pm on the Monday for a Council meeting on Wednesday), and shall provide a written copy of the question.

 

The questioner shall be present at the start of the meeting, and shall be allowed to ask one supplementary oral question relating to the original question.  Full details of the procedure are published in the Council's Constitution Part 4 Rule 9.

For further information please contact the Senior Member Services Officer on 01444 477222 (option 2) or email committees@midsussex.gov.uk

Cabinet

The Cabinet is the part of the Council which is responsible for most day-to-day decisions. The Cabinet is made up of the Executive Leader and Deputy Leader who are elected by all councillors, and a further three councillors who are nominated by the Leader of the Council.

 

When major decisions are to be discussed or made, these are published in the Cabinet’s forward plan in so far as they can be anticipated. If these major decisions are to be discussed with council officers at a meeting of the Cabinet, this will generally be open for the public to attend except where personal, exempt or confidential matters are being discussed.

 

The Cabinet has to make decisions which are in line with the Council’s overall 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.

Committees

The Full Council has the following Committees and Sub-Committees which report to it.  (The Planning Committee, District Planning Committee and the Licensing Committee are also known as “Regulatory Committees”.)