Cambridgeshire County Council – its background and structure
Background
Cambridgeshire County Council was formed in 1974 and quickly established a reputation for managerial innovation. This included medium term planning, local financial management (the County Council pioneered the delegation of budgets to schools), and imaginative approaches to service delivery including the out-sourcing of a number of Council services.
The Council faced a number of challenges in the mid to late 1990s. The transition necessary as Peterborough became a unitary authority posed its own set of pressures. And, as with many other authorities, it faced a series of difficult budgets, although its problems were exacerbated by having the lowest Standard Spending Assessment per head of population over several years of any county in England.
The Council has learned from each of these. The Local Government Review emphasised the need for the Council to strengthen its links with local communities and to make itself more accessible and responsive to local people. The budget difficulties prompted the need to re-introduce medium term financial planning to ensure resources really did match the Council’s priority areas. The Council’s approach to continuous improvement and Best Value will ensure all its services consistently meet the best available elsewhere.
County Councillors (Elected members) |
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| The County Council is governed by 69 elected County Councillors.
All seats are contested every four years. The last elections were held
in June 2009 and the current composition of the county is: |
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Conservative 42 |
| Liberal Democrat 23 | |
| Labour 2 | |
| Green 1 | |
| UKIP 1 | |
| Following the 2001 election the Council introduced new
democratic arrangements - the biggest shake up since the system was created
over one hundred years ago. The Council is led by a Leader and a Cabinet
of nine other senior Councillors working within a policy framework agreed
by all 69 Members. Scrutiny Committees have the ability to call the Cabinet
to account for its actions and to question both Members and officers
on the performance of the Council. The new system means that the public can more easily identify and hold to account those Councillors who make major decisions on issues such as schools, transport and the care of the most vulnerable in society. |
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