Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007

Future changes to Woking Borough Council's leadership arrangements and election cycle.

The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 makes provision in respect of a range of local government functions and procedures including:

  • the operation and introduction of Executive arrangements in England;

  • electoral arrangements; and

  • changes to the scrutiny regime, in particular the introduction of Councillor Call for Action.

The Act requires the Council to change its existing leadership arrangements to one of two models, namely Strong Leader or Elected Mayor. In addition, the Act allows the Council to review the existing cycle of elections (where a third of the Council's seats come up for election each year, with a break in the fourth year of the cycle) and to explore the possibility of changing to whole Council elections, once every four years.

Supporting information on the potential changes to both the leadership arrangements and the cycle of Borough elections has been prepared. In addition, a briefing paper on the Act is available together with the slides of a public presentation held on 23 September 2009.

The consultation on the future governance arrangements of the Council and its Electoral Cycle has ended. The Council would like to thank all those who responded to the consultation.

The timetable adopted by the Council is set out below. Copies of the reports submitted to the meetings are available.

Executive - 11 February 2010. Reports on the review of the Council's Governance arrangements and electoral cycle were considered. The reports set out the results of the consultation exercise, together with the key points relating to the different options available to the Council. In both cases, the Executive resolved to note the outcome of the consultation.

Council - 25 February 2010. The reports considered by the Executive, together with covering reports, were considered by the Council at two special meetings.

The first special meeting invited Councillors to vote on the two options available through the review of the Council's electoral cycle, namely retain the existing arrangements (elections by thirds) or move to whole-Council elections. The Council agreed to retain the existing arrangements.

The second special meeting considered the new governance arrangements for the Council. Proposals were drawn up for both options (Leader and Cabinet and Directly Elected Mayor with Cabinet). The Council agreed to publish a proposal based on the Leader and Cabinet Model.

Council - 19 April 2010. In accordance with the legislation, a further special meeting of the Council will be held at 7.00 p.m. to determine the new governance arrangements of the Council. The timetable for the implementation of the new arrangements is set out in the proposals.

If you have any questions relating to this information please do not hesitate to contact Member Services on 01483 743863 or email memberservices@woking.gov.uk