Council Constitution

Argyll and Bute Council is a unitary authority established as a body corporate by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994. Since 1 April 1996, following local government reorganisation, It has been providing the full range of local government services to the people of Argyll and Bute across Scotland’s second largest local authority area in urban, rural, remote and island communities.

The Council’s Constitution sets out how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures that are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people. The constitution comprises a number of parts and these parts set out the basic rules governing the manner in which the Council conducts its business.

The Council’s political management arrangements comprise –

- an Executive which has wide ranging delegated authority to take decisions on behalf of the Council;
- four decentralised Area Committees with substantial delegated authority to make decisions affecting local communities, bringing decision making closer to local people;
- four Policy and Performance Groups which develop policy and monitor performance

• Economy
• Environment
• Social Affairs
• Organisation and Development

- robust Audit Committee (on which there is independent non-Councillor members) which scrutinise and advise on the audit and risk management aspects of the Council’s business;
- a Protective Services and Licensing Committee which provides a strategic reference point on matters relating to regulatory and quasi-judicial matters;

Both Councillors and Council employees are servants of the public but they have separate responsibilities: Councillors are responsible to the electorate, the employee is responsible to the Council as a whole. They have separate roles: the Councillors’ role is to determine the strategic policy and the policybdirection of council services and to monitor how they perorm.

Direct operational management of the Council’s services is the responsibility of the Council’s Chief Executive and other Chief Officials to ensure that the policies of the Council are implemented and services are delivered to the highest standards.

The Council Constitution contains a number of parts to regulate different aspects of the way the Council operates.