How we make decisions
You can view our Constitution for full details of our decision making process.
Full Council
There are 57 elected councillors in Chelmsford who form the Full Council.
The political balance of the council is:
- Liberal Democrat Group: 33 councillors
- Conservative Group: 19 councillors
- Chelmsford Independents Group: 3 councillors
- Independent: 2 councillors
The Full Council is responsible for setting budgets and policies, as well as:
- agreeing the chairs of all Council committees
- agreeing membership of the committees
- debating issues important to the city
Full Council meetings take place four times a year and are open to the public. You can find out about attending and participating in meetings.
Cabinet
The Leader of the Council leads the Cabinet, which is formed of up to nine other councillors from the majority party.
The cabinet is responsible for making day-to-day decisions within the budgets and policies that the Full Council has set.
The cabinet meets ten times a year, and meetings are open to the public. You can find out about attending and participating in meetings.
We have to give notice of upcoming decisions that Cabinet and other executive decision-makers need to take. We will publish the latest notices on this page.
You can download our Executive Decisions Notice for January 2025.
Committees
To support the Cabinet, we have a number of other committees where councillors take decisions.
Each committee focuses on a specific council function. The committees consider issues in detail at scheduled meetings, and then decisions or recommendations are made to the Cabinet or to the Full Council.
You can view the different committees, their members and what they are for, and also find out about attending and participating in meetings.
Chief officer decisions
Officers are paid employees of the council, and implement the decisions of the councillors.
We have three directors, who lead our directorates. The directorates are:
- Connected Chelmsford
- Public Places
- Sustainable Communities
The directors can make decisions for their directorate, in line with the policies the councillors have set. Officers within the directorate carry out these decisions.
You can also view our organisational structure.
You can download our latest Executive Decision Record.
Urgency decisions
It is not always possible for the Full Council to meet to make decisions. The Chief Executive and Leader of the Council or chair of a committee will meet to make urgent decisions in these cases.
We report any urgent decisions to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and also publish them for you to view.
Urgent Decision Notice 5-2024: Dovedale Refurbishment
Urgent Decision Notice 4-2024: Purchase of Land
Urgent Decision Notice 3-2024: Business Rates pooling
Urgent Decision Notice 2-2024: Staff Pay Award
Urgent Decision Notice 1-2024: Response to Local Government Boundary Commission for England review