Hyndburn Borough Council

The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 says that by 31 December this year, the Council must adopt one of the following political management arrangements:

Mayor and Cabinet
Leader and Cabinet (the Council operates a version of the Leader and Cabinet model already, but would need to make some changes to the way this operates).

At present, the Council elects the Leader each year at the Annual Council Meeting and decides on the size of the Cabinet. The Leader then appoints the Cabinet members and decides what areas of responsibility to give to each of them.

Under the 2007 Act, the Council will have to decide to adopt one of the following two new systems:

1. A Leader and Cabinet (the 'Strong Leader' model)

Under this system, the Council will still elect the Leader, but the Leader will become responsible for:

Deciding on the size of the Cabinet (which must comprise between 3 and 10 councillors)
Allocating decision making powers to individual Cabinet members

As now, the Leader will: 

• Appoint the members of the Cabinet
• Allocate areas of responsibility to the Cabinet members 
• Remove and replace Cabinet members

This system would also involve the following further changes:

a) The Leader will continue as Leader throughout his or her term of office as a councillor. They can only be removed if they are disqualified from being a councillor (for example, if they become bankrupt) or if the full Council votes to remove them. The Leader can't be removed by any other method.
b) The Leader (not the Council) must appoint a Deputy Leader to act in his or her absence, or if the post of Leader becomes vacant.

2. A Directly Elected Mayor and Executive

Under this system, the Mayor would be elected directly by the electorate and would hold office for a term of four years. The Mayor could not be removed by a vote of the full Council.

The Mayor would appoint a Cabinet of between 3 and 10 councillors and would allocate decision making powers between the Mayor, the various Cabinet members and the Cabinet as a whole.

Once in office, the Mayor would have the same powers as the Leader under the Leader and Cabinet model. However, an elected Mayor would not be a Councillor and need not be a member either of the majority political group on the Council, or indeed of any political party. The Mayor would be reliant on the Council to pass any budget that he or she proposed and would need to work with councillors. 

The Council's preferred option is the Leader and Executive model.

The Council has to decide which new system to adopt by 31 December 2010 at the latest. Before doing so, it is consulting  across Hyndburn and welcomes comments from the public and any other interested parties.

If you would like to comment on the proposals, please send them to one of the following addresses:

By post to:

Jane Ellis
Executive Director (Legal and Democratic Services)
Hyndburn Borough Council
Scaitcliffe House
Ormerod Street
Accrington
BB5 0PF

or by e-mail to: MonitoringOfficer@hyndburnbc.gov.uk

Comments need to reach us by 19 November 2010 at the latest.

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