The Council is committed to listening to the views of the public and to taking these into account in its decision making processes. If you want to express your views there are two ways you can do this:
You can consult any Member of the authority on any subject but you are most likely to be satisfied:
Questions may be asked during ‘Public Question Time’ at any of the Council’s meetings.
The amount of time allowed for public questions is fifteen minutes, although this may be extended by the Chairman at their discretion.
Questions may be asked without notice but to guarantee a full reply at the meeting, the question must be delivered in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services at least 48 hours (not including weekends and bank holidays), before the start of the meeting. E-mail to [email protected]
If a written question has been submitted the questioner cannot also ask an oral question at the same meeting as there are separate arrangements for submitting oral questions at meetings of Council and Cabinet.
The front desk “opens” for public wishing to attend the meeting half an hour before the meeting.
When signing in at the front desk as attending a Council or Cabinet meeting each member of the public is asked whether they wish to ask an oral question at the meeting AND/OR if the member of the public indicates themselves that they wish to ask an oral question.
In the circumstances that a member of the public wishes to ask an oral question, they will be given a form to complete which details their name, town/village of residence, email address and the topic of the question (not the question in full, unless they wish to provide this).
These forms will be numbered in the order they are handed back.
The time for registering questions will be for a 20 minute period (up to 10 minutes prior to the start of the meeting). After that time expires the forms will be collected and given to the Chairman of the meeting.
If time allows after dealing with any written questions, the Chairman will then ask those who have submitted a form to put their question. These will be in the order they were received. As the subject matter is known, the Chairman should be able to indicate which member will reply.
The option to ask a supplementary question will be at the Chairman’s discretion.
Once the defined period of time allowed for questions has passed (and assuming the Chairman has not extended this) then all remaining oral questions are left unanswered.
No oral question will receive a guaranteed written response, unless the member responding indicates as such.
Questions must be of relevance to the Council or, in the case of a committee, to the remit of that committee and you may only ask one question unless the Chairman decides otherwise.
The Chairman is solely responsible for this part of the meeting and may use his powers to rule any question out of order for the following reasons:
if the above procedures are not followed