HOW THE COUNCIL WORKS

The Isle of Wight Council provides a very wide range of services for the public and many of these are extremely difficult and complex. Because of this, the Council can also look complex and difficult to understand and this can be particularly frustrating when what you need appears to be simple and straight forward.
The easiest way to think about the Council is to divide it up into two parts, the Councillors bit and the Officers bit.

The Councillors are your elected local representatives and it is their job to make sure that the services that the Council provides meet your needs and those of everybody else who lives and works on the island.
The Councillors do this by setting the overall policies and strategies for the Council and by monitoring the way in which these are implemented. In principle therefore, you should talk to your councillor if:

At its meeting on 18 July 2007 the Council adopted a new Code of Conduct for Councillors. The Code of Conduct is contained within the Council’s Constitution, which can be accessed here

For more information on how the Councillors Bit works, please click here.

The Officers are the people who work for the Council and who are paid to deliver the services agreed by Councillors.
Senior officers help Councillors to develop policies and objectives but their main role is to provide the public with the highest possible standards of service within the money that the Councillors make available.
In principle therefore, you should talk to Council Officers if:

For more information on how the Officers Bit works, please click here.