Decisions of Havant Borough Council are made at meetings or by individual Cabinet Members or officers under delegated powers.
Councillors are elected by local residents to represent a local ward. Havant has 38 elected Councillors. They represent people in 14 wards within the borough, with two or three Councillors for each ward.
Our Constitution outlines the rules and processes by which this system works. Most meetings are open to the public and are listed in the Calendar of Meetings.
The Council has adopted an “executive” form of governance. This means that the Full Council appoints a Leader of the Council. The Leader then appoints a minimum of 2 and no more than 9 other Councillors who, together with the Leader, form the Cabinet and are responsible for virtually all day-to-day decision making within a policy and budget framework approved by Full Council. Cabinet also recommend the Budget and Policy Framework to Full Council.
Full Council
Full Council is made up of 38 Councillors and meets four or five times a year. The Mayor of the Council chairs these meetings Full Council appoints the Leader of the Council and decides on the size and membership of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and other committees. The law requires Full Council to agree the budget, key policies and strategies. The public may submit questions to each meeting and Councillors debate options on important issues concerning the borough.
The Cabinet
The Leader of the Council leads the Cabinet and chairs its meetings.
Executive decisions may also be taken by the Leader, a committee of Cabinet, individual Cabinet members or by officers. Executive decisions are listed on the Executive Decisions Page
Each of the Councillors on the Cabinet is responsible for a particular area of the Council's activities (called "portfolios"). Cabinet members are called Cabinet Leads. Further details on the Cabinet may be viewed here.
The Forward Plan
The Cabinet Forward Plan sets out all ‘key’ decisions that the Cabinet will take and other Cabinet decisions and items that will be submitted to the Council which may be of interest to the public. This Plan is regularly updated.
A decision is ‘Key’ if the decision is likely to involve significant income or expenditure, that is outside of the Budget Policy Framework and is likely to have a significant effect on more than one ward. Significant expenditure in relation to key decisions is £250,000.
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has the dual purpose of holding the Cabinet decision-makers to account and contributing to long-term policy development within the Council.
Other decision making
Various Committees deal with other areas of decision-making. Most are advisory, but others, such as the Licensing or Planning Committees, have decision-making powers that are separate from the Cabinet. These are known as quasi-judicial committees as they have separately defined legal powers.