Monday night was a meeting of the Democratic Arrangements Forum, this is the group that brings together representatives of the three parties on the Council, together with the independent Chair of the Standards Committee. As the majority ruling group on the Council, the Conservatives have a majority on this (and all other) Committees.

The meeting was to discuss the issues of questions at Council meetings from members of the Public and Councillors. A number of changes are proposed:

Questions by Members of the Public at Full Council Meetings
The Conservative Group are proposing that questions at full council from members of the public must be submitted in writing in advance. On behalf of the Liberal Democrat Group I spoke out against this. We believe that, although its probably a good idea to encourage members of the public to submit questions in writing so that a fuller response can be prepared, it is still a fundamental right to be able to ask questions at the meeting on the night. We couldn’t agree on this, so the debate will go to the full meeting of the Council.

Questions by Councillors at Full Meetings of the Council
At present any Councillor can ask an unlimited number of written questions. Although it has “worked” up to now, clearly this is open to abuse given that there are 51 councillors. There was general consensus that this should be limited to TWO questions per councillor. Councillors will also be able to ask an addition question “on the night” up to a maximum time limit of 20 minutes.

Questions by Councillors at the Executive Committee
At present Councillors may not ask questions at the Executive Committee (members of the public can, but not councillors!). We suggested that Councillors should have the right to ask questions - particularly on issues that affect their ward. This is now being proposed.

The proposals will be discussed again at the Full Council meeting a week on Wednesday. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Tim