The Consultation ended on 9th August 2010.

Timetable
The Council must choose one of the above options by December 2010 for implementation in May 2011. We are consulting electors and other interested persons with a view to drawing up proposals.

This consultation period will end on 9 August 2010. The intention then is to develop proposals and report to the Cabinet on 22 September 2010. The resolution to adopt a new form of Executive Arrangements will be made by Council at a Special Meeting on 6 October 2010.

Elmbridge Borough Council is interested in hearing your opinion on how it should govern itself.

Why is this important?
A change in the law means that the Council needs to vary its current Council Leader and Cabinet arrangements, or take a bigger step and change to an Elected Mayor and Cabinet.

It is important that you let us know which of the two options you would prefer so that the Council can take this into account when deciding which of the two options to propose for Elmbridge.

We want as many people as possible to register their opinion by email or by post. We also want to hear any comments you may have so that we can consider these when we come to draw up our final proposals.

What are the options?
The Council has two options, both of which are different from the current arrangements: -

Option A - Strong Leader and Cabinet
The Leader would be supported by a Cabinet chosen by the Leader. This is similar to the Council's current system but instead of the whole Council (all 60 councillors) deciding who will be the Leader and which other councillors will make up the Cabinet, they would only be able to decide who will be the Leader.

The Leader will then remain in office until the first Council meeting after they have stood for re-election as a councillor. This could be up to 4 years (although if there are concerns the other councillors can still vote to replace him or her). In the current system the Leader stands for election or re-election by councillors each year at the Annual Meeting - this will change if this option is chosen. Once the Leader has been chosen by the Council it will then be up to the Leader to choose which councillors, up to a maximum of 9 others, to include in the Cabinet.

Under this option the role of the traditional Mayor is unchanged.

Option B - Mayor and Cabinet
With this option there would be a specific election process for the voters of Elmbridge to directly elect an individual as Mayor.

The Mayor would be elected for a term of 4 years and if there were any concerns the councillors would not be able to vote to replace him or her. The elected Mayor is not a councillor and does not represent a ward. As with option A, the Mayor would choose his or her Cabinet.

An elected Mayor is a political leader and this is entirely different from Elmbridge's current Mayoral arrangements, where a Mayor is appointed annually to carry out a civic and ceremonial role and chair the meetings of Council. The Council would no longer elect a traditional Mayor if this option were adopted.

All feedback should be for the attention of the |Legal Services Team

|Supporting Background Information