Constitution

South Oxfordshire District Council's Constitution sets out how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures the council follows to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people. Some of these processes are required by the law, while others are a matter for the council to choose.

The Constitution is divided into 16 articles, which set out the basic rules governing the council's business. More detailed procedures and codes of practice are provided in separate rules and protocols.

You can see the full Constitution 2012 from the link on this page (you can find links to the previous version of the Constitution at the end of this page). The following is a summary of the contents of the Constitution.

PART 1: contains a summary and explanation of the Constitution.

PART 2: Articles of the Constitution, contains the following articles:

Article 1- the constitution; article 2 – councillors; article 3 - citizens and the council; article 4 - the full council; article 5 - chairing the council; article 6 - scrutiny committee; article 7 - the executive (cabinet); article 8 - regulatory and other committees, article 9 - the standards committee; article 10 - area forums; article 11 - joint arrangements; article 12 - officers, article 13 - decision making, article 14 - finance, contracts and legal matters, article 15 - review and revision of the constitution, article 16 - suspension, interpretation and publication of the constitution.

PART 3: sets out the responsibilities for functions

PART 4: Rules of procedure, includes:

This section of the document includes: council procedure rules; public participation in planning applications, access to information procedure rules; budget and policy framework procedure rules; cabinet procedure rules; scrutiny committee procedure rules: Licensing Act and licensing panel procedure rules; financial procedure rules; contracts procedure rules; officer employment procedure rules; community investment fund policy and procedure rules.

PART 5: Codes and protocols, contains:

Councillors' code of conduct; councillors' planning code of good practice; departure procedure on planning applications; officers' code of conduct, protocol on councillor/officer relations; the local code of governance; councillor call for action protocol; petition scheme; councillor job description.

PART 6: includes the councillors' allowances scheme

PART 7: contains the management structure

PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE CONSTITUTION

You can access the previous version of the Constitution from the links below.

Part 1: summary and explanation (44.8 KB)