Suffolk County Council

Updated on Sep 30, 2024

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Seats 75 councillors Labour 15 / 75 Seat 75		Conservatives 37 / 75 UKIP 9 / 75 Voting system Plurality voting system

Type Non-metropolitan county council of Suffolk Joint committees East of England Local Government Association CEO Deborah Cadman (21 Oct 2011–) Profiles Twitter Facebook YouTube

Suffolk county council audio recording the cabinet 31 january 2017 part b

Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association.

40 years of suffolk county council

History

Established in 1974 and initially based at East Suffolk County Hall, the Council was located to Endeavour House in Ipswich in 2004. In September 2010, the council announced that it would seek to outsource a number of its services, in an attempt to cut its own budget by 30%. In 2011 controversy surrounding the CEO Andrea Hill featured in local and national press (including £122,000 spent on management consultants), leading to her disciplinary hearing and resignation.

Structure of the County Council

The County Council is led by its CEO Deborah Cadman who has been in this role since October 2011.

The Council is split into 4 distinct areas each of which has responsibility for a range of services and statutory requirements.

The areas known as 'Directorates' are as follows

Adult and Community Services (ACS) - Director Anna McCreadie

Children and Young Peoples Services (CYP) - Director Sue Cook

Economy Skills and Environment (ESE) - Director Lucy Robinson

Public Protection (PP)

A fifth area of work known as Scrutiny and Monitoring covers all Directorates and is responsible for internally auditing the Councils work as well as providing registry and legal services.

The responsibilities listed below may be the responsibility of more than one Directorate and as such are labelled with the relevet acronym ACS, CYP, ESE and PP

Responsibilities

Suffolk County Council is responsible for major services which are provided countywide. These include:

Business and trading standards: enforcing fair trading laws, protecting consumers and giving advice. (PP)

Education and learning: schools, evening classes for adults, youth clubs and higher education grants.(ACS, CYP)

Environment: conservation of the countryside and public access to it, waste disposal and archaeological services.(ESE)

Leisure and culture: archives and support for arts and museums.(ACS)

Public safety: fire fighting, rescue and emergency services, safety advice. (PP)

Registration of births, marriages and deaths.

Social care: care for older people who are physically or mentally infirm, or have a mental health problem, those with physical or learning disabilities and children and families who need protection and support. (ACS, CYP)

Transport and streets: maintaining and improving Suffolk's roads, footpaths and public rights of way, road safety, public transport co-ordination. (ESE)

Shared services

Responsibility for some services is shared between the county council and borough, district and parish councils in Suffolk, including:

Conservation

Economic promotion

Emergency planning

Museums and the arts

Public transport

Street cleaning

Tourism

Elections

The council is run by the Conservative party, but is now under No Overall Control after a series of by-elections. The Conservatives hold 36 seats on the Council, Labour 15, UKIP 10, Liberal Democrats 8, Independents 3, and Greens 2.

These last elections were held in May 2013.

Previous elections include:

Suffolk County Council election, 2009

Suffolk County Council election, 2005

Suffolk County Council election, 2001

References

Suffolk County Council Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA