The council is run by 42 councillors, who are elected by the local community.
It is currently controlled by the Liberal Democrat party.
Council staff implement the councillors' agreed policies.
Councillors
Our councillors are responsible for making decisions about local services and budgets.
The Leader of the Council, elected by all councillors, leads on policy development and implementation.
The leader also chairs all meetings of the executive councillors, a group responsible for the overall business of the council.
The executive councillors' decisions are subject to scrutiny by a different group of councillors, who meet in scrutiny committees to check and monitor what the executive does.
Council staff
Paid employees put councillors' policies into practice.
Staff and services are organised into three main departments:
The directors of each department make up the leadership team with the Chief Executive, the senior officer who leads and takes responsibility for the work of the paid staff of the council. Find out more about the senior council officers.
A Corporate Strategy service is directly responsible to the chief executive.
Council pay structure
The council’s pay band structure for staff [PDF] contains nine bands, and the pay structure for senior management [PDF] contains four grades – Chief Executive, Director, and Head of Service (in two grades, JNC 1 and JNC2).
We are undertaking a review of pay, terms and conditions, including pay scales.
The pay median – the ratio of the highest-paid post and the average salary – is 1:4.78.
