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Council and Democracy
What we do
The council is responsible for making decisions on behalf of the local community about local services, such as land use, refuse collection, housing and leisure facilities. The Council is also responsible for the conduct of all
local, regional, national and European elections.
How we do it
We are run by
democratically elected councillors. Members of the council align themselves to
political groups, which are not necessarily formally recognised UK political parties. The group with the majority of members forms the administration. Its Executive members are the
Cabinet led by the Leader.
Please use the following link for a complete list of formal
UK political parties (opens in a new window).
A two tier system
In most of the country there are two tiers of local government: county councils and district councils. Harrogate Borough Council works closely with
North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) (opens in a new window) who manage key services including education and learning, local libraries and archives, roads and transport, environmental services, and consumer and business services.
Our Corporate Plan
Our
three-year Corporate Plan (pdf 2MB) sets out our long-term vision for the Harrogate district, our aim as an organisation, our corporate priorities and our goals for each year.
The Plan highlights where we will work with others to deliver the long-term vision and how the Plan relates to the targets in the North Yorkshire Local Area Agreement and the Leeds City Region Multi Area Agreement.