Standing orders are a set of rules that provide formal guideline about the way that a council conducts its meetings.
They also record the council's agreed principles of behaviour within meetings.
Using Standing Orders helps to promote teamwork by:
- Allowing structured discussion of topics
- Ensuring respect for the opinions of others
- Ensuring tact and appropriate language is used to resolve conflict
- Promoting the use of persuasion and influencing skills to gain consensus
All councils are required by the Local Government Act 2002 to adopt a set of standing orders that control the way the council's meetings are conducted. The mayor and councillors must abide by the standing orders adopted by the Council.
Standing orders (538kb pdf)