Nottingham City Council is an all-purpose unitary authority providing all local government services within the City of Nottingham administrative district and working with other organisations to make Nottingham a better place in which to live, work, visit and invest.

Like all local authorities, the Council is a democratic organisation, with 55 councillors representing electors in the 20 electoral wards in the City of Nottingham. There is a local election every four years when all 55 seats are contested.

Nottingham City Council is controlled by the Labour Party

Nottingham City Council has remained in Labour control following the May 2007 local elections.

The councillors meet as a full council around every six weeks. A limited number of items of business, such as approving the level of council tax, must be considered by the full council. However, because it would be impractical for all 55 councillors to be consulted on every item of business, the Council delegates authority for making its main decisions in several ways:

• The Leader of the Council (who is the leader of the majority political group) and eight executive councillors hold decision-making powers.
  
  
• The Executive Board, a monthly meeting of the executive councillors including the Leader of the Council, makes important decisions on policy and financial matters.
  
  
• Statutory and regulatory committees determine applications for planning permission or certain types of licence, for example.
  
  
• Area Committees are made up of councillors from clusters of neighbouring electoral wards and consider matters of local interest and concern.

Councillors who are not on the Executive also have important roles in the Council’s business. They may be members of one of the regulatory committees or undertake Overview and Scrutiny activities which involve holding the Executive to account, helping to develop policy and looking in depth at areas of concern or special interest to Nottingham people and, in doing so, help to improve the way the Council does things.

To provide professional guidance, execute decisions and deliver services, the Council is divided into six departments, each led by a chief officer. Steering the council as a whole is the Chief Executive, Jane Todd.

The departments and their Corporate Directors are:

• Adult Services, Housing and Health – Sallyanne Johnson
• Children's Services – Edwina Grant
• Community & Culture – Michael Williams
• Environment & Regeneration – Barry Horne
• Performance & Strategy Group - Adrienne Roberts
• Resources – Carole Mills-Evans

If you need to make an enquiry, contact a Corporate Director or make your views heard, please contact our Customer and Information Services Department.