COUNCIL FUNCTIONS
The council has responsibility
for all the authority’s non-executive functions. Functions,
which have not been delegated, remain the sole responsibility of
the whole or full council. These are
set out in Article 4:
a)
Changing governance arrangements and
adopting and changing the constitution;
b)
Approving or adopting the policy
framework, the budget and any application to the secretary of state
in respect of any housing land transfer;
c)
Subject to the urgency procedure contained in the
access to information procedure rules making decisions about the
discharge of a cabinet function where the decision maker is minded
to make it in a manner which would be contrary to the policy
framework or contrary to/or not wholly in accordance with the
budget;
d)
Electing the Leader;
e)
Electing the chairman and vice chairman of the
council;
f)
Agreeing and/or amending the terms of reference for
committees, deciding on their composition and making appointments
to them;
g)
Appointing representatives to outside bodies unless
the appointment is an cabinet function or has been delegated by the
council;
h)
Agreeing recommendations arising from scrutiny
reviews of non-cabinet functions;
i)
Consideringrecommendations arising from scrutiny reviews
not accepted by the cabinet and referred by the chairman of
therelevant
committee;
j)
Adopting a members’ allowances
scheme;
k)
Changing the name of the district or
of a parish;
l)
Conferring the title of honorary alderman or
admitting to honorary freedom;
m)
Petitioning for a charter to confer borough
status;
n)
Confirming the appointment or dismissal of the head
of paid service;
o)
Promoting or opposing the making of local
legislation or personal bills;
p)
All local choice functions which the council decides
should be undertaken by itself rather than the cabinet and which
have not been delegated by the council;
q)
Entering into, or confirming existing, or extending
joint arrangements with other local authorities under the
provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local
Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007;
r)
Making any decisions in respect of non-Cabinet
functions which have not been expressly delegated
elsewhere;
s)
Adopting the members’ code of
conduct;
t)
Confirming the designation of the monitoring
officer, section 151 officer, electoral registration officer and
returning officer;
u)
making, amending, revoking,
re-enacting byelaws and promoting or opposing the making of local
legislation or personal bills;
v)
Deciding whether or not to accept
the delegation of a function by another local authority;
w)
In relation to non-executive
functions, the function of authorising a person to exercise a
function to which Section 70 of the Deregulation and Contracting
Out Act 1994 applies and revoking any such
authorisation.
x)
Passing of a resolution not to issue
casino premise licences under the Gambling Act 2005, and any
revocation of such resolution;
y)
Functions relating to community
governance, unless delegated to officers;
z)
Approving or revising the petition
scheme;
aa)
All other matters which, by law, must be reserved to
council.
The
Policy Framework
Approving
or adopting the policy framework is a function of the whole
council.
This means
the following plans and strategies:-
Changing or revoking any of
these is also a function of the full council, unless the change
just gives effect to a ministerial direction or is authorised by
the full council. The cabinet cannot
take a decision contrary to the policy framework except under any
urgency powers contained in this constitution. The full council can
only make such decisions.
Cabinet shall submit an annual report to council
detailing the policies that have been approved in the previous year
which are not those mentioned in above and appendix 1 and council
shall have the option of including any of the policies in the
policy framework.
The Budget
Approval or adoption of the
budget is a full council function. The
executive cannot take a decision, which is contrary to, or not
wholly in accordance with the budget.
The full council can only make such decisions.
Submit a question to Council
Members of the public may ask questions of the Leader, and other
members of the Cabinet, at ordinary meetings of the
Council.
Only one question may be permitted, and it must be submitted via
email to committee@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk,
no later than ten clear working days before the day
of the meeting. You must include your name and address, and who you
wish to direct your question to.
You
need to specify which meeting you want to ask your question at,
using the
dates for Full Council meetings. Please note that you can only
ask questions at ‘ordinary’ meetings, and not the
Annual meeting, which is usually held in May each year.
Please note that the Monitoring Officer may reject a question if
it:
a)
Is
not about a matter for which the Council has a responsibility or
which affects the district;
b) Is defamatory,
frivolous or offensive;
c) Is
substantially the same as a question which has been put at a
meeting of the Council in the past six months; or
d)
Requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt
information.
If
your question is rejected by the Monitoring Officer, you will be
notified within three working days.
At
the meeting
The
Chairman will invite the questioner to put the question to the
councillor named in the notice. The relevant Cabinet
Member/Chairman will then respond to the question. The questioner may then as one relevant
supplementary question. This must arise directly out of the
original question, or the reply.
If a questioner, is not present at
the meeting, the question will not be answered.
There will be a time limit of 30 minutes for public questions,
and any question, which cannot be dealt with
during public question time, will be dealt with by a written answer
within ten clear working days.