The Council's constitution identifies the following roles and functions for councillors;
Key roles.
All councillors will:
- collectively be the ultimate policy-makers and carry out a number of strategic and corporate management functions;
- represent their communities and bring their views into the Council’s decision-making process, ie, become the advocate of and for their communities;
- deal with individual casework and act as an advocate for constituents in resolving particular concerns or grievances;
- balance different interests within their ward and represent the ward as a whole; and balance the interests of other wards against their own to represent the interests of the district as a whole;
- contribute to the good governance of the area and actively encourage community participation and citizen involvement in decision making;
- be involved in decision-making;
- be available to represent the Council on other bodies; and
- maintain the highest standards of conduct and ethics.
Rights and Duties
- Councillors will have such rights of access to such documents, information, land and buildings of the Council as are necessary for the proper discharge of their functions and in accordance with the law.
- Councillors will not make public information which is confidential or exempt without the consent of the Council or divulge information given in confidence to anyone other than a councillor or officer entitled to know it. For these purposes, “confidential” and “exempt” information are defined in the Access to Information Rules in Part 4 of this Constitution.
- Councillors will develop and maintain a working knowledge of the authority’s services and policies and take advantage of appropriate training and development opportunities to enable them to fulfil their role.
