Local Government Reform - Consultation on Policy Proposals

majority voting) for specified strategic decisions to be made by
district councils. Examples of these decisions would include:
• decision-making structures;
• major capital projects; and
• programmes that impact across a number of wards.
The use of qualified majority voting would also be available to
councils for decisions that had been the subject of a legitimate callin.
3.25. Decisions relating to the statutory duties of a council, e.g. striking
the rate, and those of a quasi-judicial nature, e.g. making bye-laws,
will be excluded from qualified majority voting. For the operation of
qualified majority voting, it is proposed that a straightforward
threshold, set at 80% of council members present and voting, will
apply, rather than a system of cross-community voting (such as the
one operated by the Northern Ireland Assembly).
Question 10:
Should a call-in procedure be introduced to provide a check
and balance for council-decision making?
Question 11:
Do you support the proposal for such a call-in to be available
in the two circumstances outlined, and for how it would
operate?
15