Councillors and decision-making

We operate a Leader and Executive system to take most of the council’s decisions:

• Most day-to-day decisions are taken by the Executive (opens in new window) which usually meets on the first Tuesday of the month.
• The Executive is made up of the Leader of the Council (opens in new window) and up to nine other councillors, known as Portfolio Holders.
• Each Portfolio Holder has responsibility for one or more areas of our work, called Portfolios.
• Some decisions, such as setting the budget, setting Council Tax or approving specific policies and strategies, are considered by all 50 Waverley Borough Councillors meeting as Full Council (opens in new window). Meetings of Full Council are chaired by the Mayor of Waverley.
• We have a number of other committees that either advise the Executive and Portfolio Holders, or that scrutinise performance and decision-making. Some committees have particular roles such as determining planning and licensing applications. View our Committees (opens in new window).
• The responsibility of each committee is set out in our Constitution (opens in new window). 
• All of our committee meetings are open to the public and agendas and reports for the meeting are available five working days before each meeting. View our calendar of meetings (opens in new window). 
• The Scheme of Delegation to Officers and associated Schemes of Authorisation set out the decisions that may be made by Officers of the Council. Those decisions, when made, are published on the Officer Decisions page.