New Executive Arrangements

Council Leader and Cabinet or Directly Elected Mayor and Cabinet?

Have your say!

What's this all about? A change in the law means we must change the way the Council is run. The Council has two options. Both options are different from the current system.

How is the Council run? At present, every four years local voters elect between one and three local Councillors to represent you on Stockton Borough Council. In total, 56 Councillors serve the Borough. Each year a Leader and Cabinet are elected by the 56 Councillors, by means of a simple majority of votes.

What are the two options?

Council Leader and Cabinet

This option is similar to how the Council is run now. However, instead of a majority of the whole Council (all 56 councillors) deciding who will be the Council Leader and which other Councillors will make up the Cabinet they will only decide who will be the Leader. The Leader would then remain in office for four years instead of one year.

The Council Leader will be able to appoint up to nine other Councillors including a Deputy Leader. Together they will form the Cabinet. A majority vote of the whole Council would be able to remove the Council Leader from office but would then have to appoint a new leader. Local voters would not be able to remove the Council Leader from Office during the four year term.

Directly elected Mayor and Cabinet

With this option there would be a specific election for local government electors to directly elect an individual as Mayor. The Mayor will then remain in office for four years.

The directly elected Mayor will be able to appoint up to nine Councillors, including a Deputy Mayor. Together they will form the Cabinet. The whole Council would not be able to remove a directly elected Mayor from office, only local voters would be able to do so at the end of the four years.

How did we decide?

We wanted as many people as possible to give their views on how Stockton Council should be run in the future. An information and consultation programme ran from September 9th 2009 to October 9th 2009. It was originally agreed to organise a public referendum following the outcome of this consultation programme. However, the Council decided not to proceed with this due to limited public interest and the present financial climate.

Instead, information regarding the two executive models was sent directly to all Stockton residents - listed on the Electoral Register - who were then asked to tell us which of the executive models they would prefer to see introduced by the Council.

The further consultation ran from 7th July 2010 to 29th July 2010. Consultation reply slips were returned and the breakdown of responses was as follows:

26,069 consultation slips returned
13,445 in favour of a Council Leader and Cabinet
12,513 in favour of a Directly Elected Mayor and Cabinet
111 void due to uncertainty

These views were then evaluated and considered when making the decision on how the council would be run in the future.

On 2nd September 2010, Cabinet considered the consultation replies and recommended to Council that the Council Leader and Cabinet Executive model be approved.

On 8th September 2010, Council accepted this recommendation and on 24th November 2010 at a Special Council meeting, resolved to implement the new Council Leader and Cabinet model on 8th May 2011 after the 5th May Local Government elections.

Copies of the documents detailing the proposed new arrangements are available for inspection by request at the main Reception at the Municipal Buildings, Church Road, Stockton-on-Tees between 9:00am - 4:00pm, Monday - Friday

The Timetable

7th July 2010 - Information sent to residents

29th July 2010 - Consultation closed

2nd September 2010 - Evaluation and consideration of consultation responses by Cabinet

8th September 2010 - Council decided on the way forward

Council and Cabinet Minutes of Meetings

Cabinet Minutes - 6th August 2009

Council Minutes - 9th September 2009

Cabinet Minutes - 26th November 2009

Council Minutes - 9th December 2009

Cabinet Minutes - 2nd September 2010

Council Minutes - 8th September 2010

Council Minutes - 24th November 2010