The Leader of the Council is Councillor Catherine Sayer, who represents the Oxted North Ward.
The Leader is the political and elected head and chief ambassador of the Council. The role is given to the leader of the biggest political group on the Council.
Role, purpose and activity
The Leader’s role is to:
- Provide effective political leadership and strategic direction for the Council.
- Work with the Chief Executive and senior officers to form a vision for the Council, the district and provide community leadership.
- Provide strong, clear leadership in the co-ordination of policies, strategies and service delivery.
- Liaise with the Chief Executive and other appropriate officers, on a regular basis.
- Act as the political spokesperson for the Council.
- Have overall responsibility for representing the Council’s views to the public and all organisations with which the Council has contact.
- Be the representative voice of the Council on external bodies, such as the Local Government Association (LGA) and when working with other councils.
- Positively promote the Council as a whole to the media.
Key responsibilities
The Leader’s key responsibilities are to:
- Be the political (rather than ceremonial) leader of the Council, for the benefit of residents and business.
- Have overall responsibility for the political management of the Council.
- Work with other elected members and the committees to deliver council priorities, strategies and policies.
- Represent and pursue the interests of the Council in the community and at international, national and regional levels.
- Promote the long-term financial, business and economic stability of the Council.
- Meet regularly to progress the Council’s objectives with committee chairmen, the Chief Executive, chief officers and leaders of other political groups on the Council, partner organisations, stakeholders, community representatives, government representatives, MP etc.
- Promote high standards of corporate governance and ethical conduct throughout the Council including working with all political groups to seek to achieve, where possible, cross party co-operation.
- Promote and maintain professional working relationships and mutual respect between all councillors and officers.
- Work across the Council, particularly with the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the committees and sub-committees on the development and implementation of the Council’s strategic vision for the future, policy framework, budgets and other strategies.
- To promote effective corporate governance and risk management and encourage the highest standards of probity.
Find out more about how the Council is run.