Babergh District Council unveils new Cabinet and governance model

Babergh District Council has re-elected Cllr Jennie Jenkins as leader, and also unveiled the new cabinet system which will support her in running the council.

Under the district council’s revised constitution, the leader, elected by all members, will appoint members of the cabinet to help direct the council, and assign portfolios to some cabinet members as appropriate.

In addition to being re-elected as leader, Cllr Jenkins also adopted the assets and investments portfolio.

Cllr Jan Osbrone was elected deputy leader, and was appointed cabinet member for housing.

The rest of the cabinet is environment cabinet member Tina Campbell, communities member Margaret Maybury, planning member Lee Parker, finance member Peter Patrick and economy member John Ward.

Cllr Peter Burgoyne was re-elected the chairman of Babergh District Council, with Cllr Kathryn Grandon elected as vice-chairman.

This new cabinet model replaces the previous Strategy Committee and Portfolio Holder model, with the goal of streamlining the decision-making process.

The council says the new model is aimed at greater transparency, and it plans to publish forward plans online, which will cover the upcoming three months of cabinet business on a rolling basis.

Cllr Jenkins said: “This new model is designed to make our work transparent, our responses swifter and our council stronger. By doing this we will be able to focus more clearly on what matters to our residents.

“By making it clear what decisions are made by which parts of the council, and publishing a full plan of cabinet business, we hope to help make local government more open and more accessible for our residents.”