How the council works

Residents have an important role in how the council works. 

You can:

• vote at local elections if you’re registered
• contact your local councillor if you're concerned about a local issue
• read or get a copy of our constitution
• attend meetings of the Council, its committees and the Cabinet, except where personal or confidential matters are being discussed
• petition for a referendum on how the Council is governed
• bring concerns to the direct attention of the Council by asking:
  • a councillor to present a petition at a Council meeting
  • to address the Council as part of a deputation
  • a question at a Council meeting during public question time
• find out what key decisions are to be decided and when
• see reports and background papers, and any record of decisions made by the council and the cabinet
• complain to the council
• complain to the ombudsman if you think we have not followed our procedures properly. You should only do this after using our complaints procedure
• complain to the Chief Executive if you have evidence which you think shows that a councillor has not followed the council's code of conduct
• inspect the council's accounts and make your views known to the external auditor

You may have more rights if you’re using specific council services such as being a parent of a school student or a council tenant.

Find out how you can get involved

Changing how the Council is governed

You can petition to change our model of governance from having a leader and cabinet to an elected mayor and cabinet. To do so, we need to have more than 5% of registered voters’ signatures on a petition. This number is known as the verification number.

For petitions submitted to change how the council is governed from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, a petition must have 9,467 signatures to be valid.