Political Structure, Scrutiny and Constitution

East Herts operates a 'Leader with Executive' decision-making system.

The Council's Constitution outlines the rules and processes by which this system works. Most meetings are open to the public, and are listed in the Calendar of meetings.

Some meetings may also be broadcast live on the internet.

All Councillors meet together as Council. It is the Council which determines the overall policies and budgets.

The Executive is responsible for most day-to-day decisions. There are a number of matters on which the Executive is not allowed, by law, to take decisions. For example, decisions on planning applications cannot be taken by the Executive.

The Council has established an Overview and Scrutiny Committee. More information about this can be found on our Scrutiny page.

The Council has also established an Audit and Governance Committee, which will have the specific role of monitoring the budget; approving the Council's Statement of Accounts and acting as the Council's Audit committee. The committee is also responsible for promoting and maintaining the Ethical Standards Framework.

The Council has also established regulatory committees. The Development Management Committee deals with planning applications and planning enforcement matters. The Licensing Committee deals with statutory provisions relating to liquor, taxi, gaming, entertainment, food and miscellaneous licensing and health and safety functions.

Download the mod.gov app

You can access committee meeting information via our Mod.Gov app for Android and Apple tablet devices:

Easily download, annotate and keep all meetings documents on your mobile device.

The mod.gov app will automatically download meeting agendas and documents to your smartphone or tablet for you to make notes on and keep for future reference.

  1. Download the app
    Available for free from the above links for Android, Apple tablet and Windows devices
  2. Select your Council
    Simply choose East Herts from the list of available Councils
  3. Select your Committees Select the committees you wish to subscribe to, you can have as many as you like

New agendas and other meeting papers will be automatically downloaded as they are published.

Once a document has downloaded you can make notes and highlight areas - your edits will be saved for future reference - just like on a paper copy. You can then refer to documents and use your notes in the meeting.