Council is a meeting consisting of all elected Councillors plus the elected Mayor.

Council is one of the most long-standing features of Local Government decision-making with a history stretching back to at least 1888.

The Council has responsibility for all Non-Executive functions and for certain statutory functions such as approving the budget and policy framework. Council as a whole also retains responsibility for regulatory functions.

Only Council itself will exercise a number of functions such as appointing the Speaker of the Council, agreeing bylaws and determining Community Governance Reviews. The full list is set out in the Council Terms of Reference set out in Part D, Chapter 16 of this Constitution.

There are four types of Council meetings:

1. The annual meeting

2. The budget meeting

3. Ordinary meetings

4. Extraordinary meetings

They will be conducted in accordance with Chapter 17 (Council Procedure Rules) of this Part of the Constitution.

The Mayor and all Councillors may attend meetings of Council and may participate as set out in the Council Procedure Rules.

As part of this Constitution, the Council will maintain a document setting out the “Responsibilities for the Council’s functions” which are not the responsibility of the Executive.

The functions listed in the 'Responsibilities for the Council's functions' are those determined by legislation. If the legislation changes, the Monitoring Officer will change the Constitution in accordance with their delegated powers set out in the Supplementary Documents (Part J).

Subject to Section 11.13 (Decision-Making by Council Bodies Acting as Tribunals), the Council meeting will follow Chapter 17 (Council Procedure Rules) of this Part of the Constitution when considering any matter.

Housing Land Transfer means the approval or adoption of applications or a programme of applications (whether in draft form or not) for approval of a programme of disposal of 500 or more properties to a person for which a levy would be payable to the Secretary of State under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 or to dispose of land used for residential purposes where approval is required under sections 32 or 43 of the Housing Act 1985.