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Council

This page lists the meetings for Council.

Meetings

Information about Council

COUNCIL FUNCTIONS

 

The council has responsibility for all the authority’s non-executive functions. Functions, which have not been delegated, remain the sole responsibility of the whole or full council.  These are set out in Article 4:

a)           Changing governance arrangements and adopting and changing the constitution;

b)           Approving or adopting the policy framework, the budget and any application to the secretary of state in respect of any housing land transfer;

c)            Subject to the urgency procedure contained in the access to information procedure rules making decisions about the discharge of a cabinet function where the decision maker is minded to make it in a manner which would be contrary to the policy framework or contrary to/or not wholly in accordance with the budget;

d)           Electing the Leader;

e)           Electing the chairman and vice chairman of the council;

f)             Agreeing and/or amending the terms of reference for committees, deciding on their composition and making appointments to them;

g)           Appointing representatives to outside bodies unless the appointment is an cabinet function or has been delegated by the council;

h)           Agreeing recommendations arising from scrutiny reviews of non-cabinet functions;

i)             Consideringrecommendations arising from scrutiny reviews not accepted by the cabinet and referred by the chairman of therelevant committee;

j)             Adopting a members’ allowances scheme;

k)            Changing the name of the district or of a parish;

l)             Conferring the title of honorary alderman or admitting to honorary freedom;

m)          Petitioning for a charter to confer borough status;

n)           Confirming the appointment or dismissal of the head of paid service;

o)           Promoting or opposing the making of local legislation or personal bills;

p)           All local choice functions which the council decides should be undertaken by itself rather than the cabinet and which have not been delegated by the council;

q)           Entering into, or confirming existing, or extending joint arrangements with other local authorities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007;

r)             Making any decisions in respect of non-Cabinet functions which have not been expressly delegated elsewhere;

s)            Adopting the members’ code of conduct;

t)             Confirming the designation of the monitoring officer, section 151 officer, electoral registration officer and returning officer;

u)           making, amending, revoking, re-enacting byelaws and promoting or opposing the making of local legislation or personal bills;

v)            Deciding whether or not to accept the delegation of a function by another local authority;

w)          In relation to non-executive functions, the function of authorising a person to exercise a function to which Section 70 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 applies and revoking any such authorisation.

x)            Passing of a resolution not to issue casino premise licences under the Gambling Act 2005, and any revocation of such resolution;

y)            Functions relating to community governance, unless delegated to officers;

z)            Approving or revising the petition scheme;

aa)        All other matters which, by law, must be reserved to council.

 

The Policy Framework

 

Approving or adopting the policy framework is a function of the whole council.

 

This means the following plans and strategies:-

 

·               The Sustainable Community Strategy

·               Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy

·               Drugs and Alcohol Strategy

·               Local Transport Plan

·               Core documents of the LDF

·               Community Safety Partnership Plan

·               Statement of Licensing Policy under the Licensing Act 2003 (for Council decision, acting as the Licensing Authority)

·               Statement of Gambling Licensing Policy under the Gambling Act 2005 (for Council decision, acting as the Licensing Authority)

·               The Medium Term Financial Strategy

·               Any plan or strategy for the control of the Council’s borrowing investments or capital expenditure

·               Corporate Plan

·               The Housing Investment Programme

·               Such other plans and strategies that the Council decides should be reserved to full Council

 

Changing or revoking any of these is also a function of the full council, unless the change just gives effect to a ministerial direction or is authorised by the full council.  The cabinet cannot take a decision contrary to the policy framework except under any urgency powers contained in this constitution. The full council can only make such decisions.

 

Cabinet shall submit an annual report to council detailing the policies that have been approved in the previous year which are not those mentioned in above and appendix 1 and council shall have the option of including any of the policies in the policy framework.

 

The Budget

 

Approval or adoption of the budget is a full council function.  The executive cannot take a decision, which is contrary to, or not wholly in accordance with the budget.  The full council can only make such decisions.

 

 

Submit a question to Council

 

Members of the public may ask questions of the Leader, and other members of the Cabinet, at ordinary meetings of the Council.

 

Only one question may be permitted, and it must be submitted via email to committee@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk, no later than ten clear working days before the day of the meeting. You must include your name and address, and who you wish to direct your question to.

 

You need to specify which meeting you want to ask your question at, using the dates for Full Council meetings. Please note that you can only ask questions at ‘ordinary’ meetings, and not the Annual meeting, which is usually held in May each year.

 

Please note that the Monitoring Officer may reject a question if it:

 

a)         Is not about a matter for which the Council has a responsibility or which affects the district;

b)         Is defamatory, frivolous or offensive;

c)         Is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of the Council in the past six months; or

d)         Requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt information.

 

If your question is rejected by the Monitoring Officer, you will be notified within three working days.

 

At the meeting

The Chairman will invite the questioner to put the question to the councillor named in the notice. The relevant Cabinet Member/Chairman will then respond to the question.  The questioner may then as one relevant supplementary question. This must arise directly out of the original question, or the reply.  

 

 If a questioner, is not present at the meeting, the question will not be answered.

 

There will be a time limit of 30 minutes for public questions, and any question, which cannot be dealt with during public question time, will be dealt with by a written answer within ten clear working days.