Changes to the law mean Waltham Forest has to decide on changes to its leadership arrangements.   Currently, the Council has a Leader of the Council (Cllr Chris Robbins) and a cabinet of nine other councillors who make most of the major decisions affecting the borough.   This model has worked well since it was first introduced in Waltham Forest in 2000.

However, the government requires all of London’s councils to choose one of two types of leadership by 31 December 2009.

A White Paper recently published by the Government (pdf 1.7 Mb) explains why we need to make changes.

The two models of Council leadership

The Council must choose to have one of the following two systems:

  1. A directly-elected mayor with a Cabinet – such a system has already been adopted by some other London boroughs, including Hackney and Newham.
  2. A ’strong leader’ with a Cabinet – this is similar to the existing arrangements in Waltham forest but with some differences.

The Council’s proposal

Following consultation with residents, the Council resolved at its meeting on 22 October 2009, to propose to adopt the leader and cabinet (England) model of executive arrangements  (option 2 above).  The main features of this model are:

  • The Council, at its first meeting following the local elections, will elect one of its members to serve a 4 year term of office as Leader of the Council.
  • The Leader may only be removed by a resolution of Full Council, death or resignation.   
  • The Leader will hold all executive powers and may delegate powers to the Cabinet, Cabinet Members, Cabinet committees or officers.   
  • The Leader will appoint members of the Cabinet and allocate portfolios, and may change these at any time as he/she thinks fit.
  • The Leader will appoint one Cabinet member as his/her deputy to exercise the Leader’s powers when the Leader is unable to act.   In circumstances where neither the Leader nor deputy is able to act, the Cabinet collectively will exercise the Leader’s powers.
  • The Leader, as a councillor, will be fully subject to all the law that applies to councillors including the code of conduct, allowances and disqualification.
  • The change in governance arrangements outlined above does not, except for the election of leader and cabinet, have any impact on the powers of full council.   Full Council will retain its powers to agree the Council’s budget and policy framework and to determine most regulatory decisions.   It is proposed, however, that there will be a review of the issues that make up the Policy Framework that are determined by Full Council.
  • The Leader will determine whether to agree a scheme to delegate powers to individual ward members to discharge in their wards.
  • The new governance arrangements will take effect 3 days after the council elections on 6 May 2010.

Further Information

View copies of the report considered by the Council on 22 October 2009, setting out the proposals

How to make your views known

A further report will be considered at a Special Meeting of the Council to be held on Thursday 17 December 2009, when a final decision on the new governance arrangements will be made.

Any comments on the proposals should be sent to Peter Bailey, Head of Democratic Services, Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road, London E17 4JF by Friday 4 December 2009.

Daniel Fenwick,
Acting Director of Governance & Law,
London Borough of Waltham Forest.