The 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. Additional information is provided on the Council’s website: Population: Where We Live | Argyll and Bute Council.
The Operation of the Council
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. Appendices contain more detailed procedures and codes of practice regulating different aspects of the Council’s business.
The Council’s political management arrangements comprise –
- the Council and the Strategic Committees of Policy and Resources, Community Services and Environment, Development and Infrastructure to take decisions on matters within their powers as contained in statute or by the provisions of this Constitution;
- four decentralised Area Committees with delegated authority to make decisions affecting local communities, to lead local community engagement, to lead Local Area Community Planning Groups involving Community Planning partners, to bring decision making closer to local people;
- robust governance arrangements in the shape of an Audit and Scrutiny Committee (on which there is an independent non-Councillor Chair person) which scrutinises and advises on audit and risk management aspects of the Council’s business;
- a Planning, Protective Services and Licensing Committee which provides a strategic reference point to take decisions relating to regulatory and quasi-judicial matters including development management;
- the Council may also establish Short Life Working Groups to look at policy matters in more detail and to report their findings to the Council;
- a single Harbour Board to oversee the operation of all Council piers and harbours.
Both Councillors and Council employees are servants of the public, 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 policy and direction, scrutinise performance and achievement of outcomes, and to participate in decisions on matters placed before them. Direct operational management of the Council’s services is the responsibility of the Council’s Chief Executive and Executive Leadership Team.
