Committees guide

Guide to the council's committee meetings

Please see the meetings and agendas page for dates, times and locations for all scheduled meetings.

Full council, cabinet and committees

Besides full council meetings and meetings of the cabinet, the council has a number of committees that have different responsibilities and decision-making or advisory powers. 

These committees include Planning, Scrutiny, Audit and Corporate Governance, Standards, General Licensing, Licensing Acts and Licensing panel meetings.  We also have joint committees with other councils such as the Ridgeway Shared Partnership and the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership. 

About the committees

• Full Council is responsible for approving the council's overall budget and policy framework.

• Cabinet is responsible for carrying out the executive functions of the council within the approved budget and policy framework. 

• The current Scrutiny Committee has 13 councillors and is responsible for holding the Cabinet to account, policy development, best value reviews and external scrutiny. It replaces the Customer and Community Scrutiny Committee and the Corporate Improvement and Scrutiny Committee that existed until 2010, and preceding those the Overview Committee and Scrutiny Committee, for which the agendas, reports and minutes can still be viewed.

• Audit and Corporate Governance Committee is responsible for managing risk, maintaining an effective control environment and considers reports on financial and non-financial performance.

• Planning Committee is responsible for determining certain planning applications which are not decided under delegated powers.

• General Licensing Committee is responsible for determining issues relating to licensing and registration.

• Licensing Acts Committee  is responsible for determining issues relating to licensing under the Licensing Act 2003 and the Gambling Act 2005.

• Licensing Panels hear applications for licences. These are made up of three members of the main committee.

• Standards Committee is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct of councillors and monitoring the operation of the members code of conduct

• A person affected by a council decision on national non-domestic rates, housing, council-tax and community charge benefit or housing can make an appeal to a panel.

Watching a meeting

The public can observe most business at public meetings.  On occasion, the committee may consider items on the agenda without the public present.  When this happens you cannot watch the business taking place.  The agenda for the meeting will indicate if and when the public cannot observe the business.

At the council offices

If you wish, you can come to the council offices to view a meeting that is open to the public.  Meetings generally take place at the council offices in Crowmarsh Gifford but you should check the agenda for the meeting you are interested in for full details of the location. 

On the internet

Instead of coming to the council offices, you can watch a meeting on the internet. We broadcast meetings of full council, cabinet, planning and the scrutiny committee on the internet.  You can watch them live or watch recent meetings from our webcast pages.

Constitution

Further information on all of the council's committees and procedures are contained in the Constitution.