Running the council

If the Labour group of councillors has a majority, they will normally form the administration of the council, take the positions of Leader and Deputy Leader of the council and form the executive or cabinet - up to 10 members including the Leader - to oversee the day to day decisions and policies of the council.
 
A small number of councils have an executive Mayor, who is elected by the electorate of the whole area and chooses a Deputy Mayor and the executive from amongst the councillors.
 
And a number of smaller councils have a series of policy committees and a scrutiny committee, rather than a cabinet (known as the fourth option).
 
If Labour has a majority, it is obviously easier to seek to implement the manifesto - the programme of commitments for the local area on which Labour councillors stand for election - because the voters have given you a mandate to do so by voting you in as the majority.
 
At the first council meeting after the election, where Labour is in the majority, it is common for the Labour manifesto to be proposed as a motion and adopted by the council as council policy. This then sets the policy framework within which the executive or cabinet will work to deliver the policies in more detail. It would be developed by council officers to form a corporate strategy for the council, and published as an official document or in a popular format to share with residents so that they know what the council’s priorities are and how they will affect them.
 
Part of the Labour group of councillors' political role is to ensure that the Labour manifesto is delivered and to both support the cabinet and hold them to account for that delivery. They can do this through taking on a wide range of roles both inside and outside the council, set out on the next page in this site.