The Council is made up of the elected Mayor and the
45 Councillors of Tower Hamlets. The
Council is responsible for a range of functions that it only alone
may carry out. Such functions include: setting the Council’s
main policies and its overall budget, the Council tax rate for the
year; adopting and
making material changes to the Council’s Constitution and
approving the Members allowance scheme.
The Council cannot take every decision itself.
Therefore, it appoints a number of committees to carry out specific
functions on its behalf. These include: the regulatory committees
(Planning and Licensing to determine applications) and a Standards
(Advisory) Committee amongst others.
Council functions are also known as ‘non
Executive functions’.
The Council also provides a forum for questioning
and debate with the Executive including the consideration of
petitions. See our
ways of participation page for more information about
this.
Meetings of the Council are usually held on a
Wednesday evening at the Town Hall, Mulberry Place and is open to
the public to attend. A timetable for its
meeting dates and deadlines can be found here.
Types of meetings.
There are four types of Council meetings:
- Annual
Council that is usually held in May. The purpose of which is to
carry out such tasks as appointing the Council’s speaker and
deputy speaker, the Council’s Committees, their membership and terms of reference for that
year.
- The budget
meeting in February specifically for setting the Council’s
budget and Council tax.
- Ordinary
scheduled meetings.
- Extra-ordinary meetings, in addition to those scheduled, to
consider a particular matter that cannot wait until the next
ordinary meeting.
Useful links –
Council Constitution
- Role of the Council (Part 2, Article 4,The
Full Council) pgs 15-17.
- List of Council Functions and delegations
(Part 3. 1, Responsibility for Functions) pgs 55-89.
- Terms of Reference for the Council (Part
3.3.1, Responsibility for Functions) pgs 93-94.
- Council’s Procedural Rules (Part 4.1)
pgs 137-159.
-
Guidance for asking questions and submitting petitions to
Council
Webcasts
Films of
recent meetings are available to view (external
site).