That the Council Procedure Rules be amended as follows—
1. For Council Procedure Rule 5 (Ordinary Meetings), subsection (i), substitute the following—
“(i) consider questions from, and provide answers to, members of the public, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12;”.
2. For Council Procedure Rule 5 (Ordinary Meetings), subsection (j), substitute the following—
“(j) consider questions from, and provide answers to, Councillors, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.2;”.
3. For Council Procedure Rule 4.1 (Order of Business, Annual Meeting of Council), omit subsection (n) and insert the following at the end—
“(n) consider questions from, and provide answers to, members of the public, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12;
(o) consider questions from, and provide answers to, Councillors, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.2;
(p) consider any business set out in the notice convening the meeting.”.
Explanatory Notes (not part of the Motion) This Motion proposes to amend the Council Procedure Rules, such that Questions by Councillors and Questions by the Public will be able to be taken at Annual Meetings of the Council as they can currently be taken at Ordinary Meetings of the Council. At present, if a question arises at a time when the Annual Meeting is the next scheduled Meeting of the Council, the potential Questioner must either ask their question outside of the formal context of a Council Meeting (if this is possible) or wait until the next Ordinary Meeting of the Council for the same privilege. In 2021, the time between the Annual Meeting and the next Ordinary Meeting was a little under two months. In the interests of democratic accountability, the signatories to this Motion believe that the rights of Councillors and Members of the Public to ask questions of elected officials should be the same at Annual Meetings of the Council as is currently the case with Ordinary Meetings of the Council. This is because – given that one Meeting a year will inevitably be an Annual Meeting – the signatories to this Motion do not believe that it is fair to require questions that would otherwise be answered at this meeting to wait until the next Ordinary Meeting to receive an answer.In addition to adding items for Questions by the Public and Questions by Councillors to the statutory Annual Meeting Order of Business (Motion 3), this Motion also clarifies the wording of these items (including as they currently appear on the Ordinary Meeting Order of Business – Motion 1, 2), such as to make clear that the validity of any questions are governed by Council Procedure Rules 12 (for Questions by the Public) and 13.2 (for Questions by Councillors)
Proposer – Cllr John Hinton
Seconder – Cllr Alison Owen
Cllr Sue Ayres
Cllr Leigh Jamieson
Cllr Trevor Cresswell
Cllr John Nunn
Cllr Margaret Maybury
Minutes:
28.1 Councillor Hinton MOVED his motion on notice and informed Councillors that the Council was in danger of losing the confidence of the public by not being open and transparent in its democratic dealings with the public.
28.2 Before 2016, questions from members of the public and Councillors were allowed at the Annual Council meeting, since then it seems to have disappeared at a time when the number of council meetings was also reducing.
28.3 Councillor Hinton felt that the ability to ask questions at the Annual Council meeting should be restored for both members of the public and councillors and that this be made a formality by the Council.
28.4 Councillor Owen SECONDED the motion and reserved the right to speak.
28.5 Councillor Ward stated that he had no objection to the principle of having questions at the Annual Council. However, he felt that the Motion was to wordy and should be more succinct and that the exact wording should be agreed by the Constitution Working Group or the Monitoring Officer.
28.6 Councillor Ward then moved the following amendment:-
This motion proposes that this council allows questions from councillors and members of the public at the Annual Meeting. At the moment, questions have to be held over until the next ordinary meeting following the annual meeting, which can sometimes interfere with democratic accountability because questions may no longer be current and thereby lose their relevance.
As this is a straightforward change to the Constitution, this motion proposes that council instructs the Monitoring Officer to make the appropriate changes to the Annual Meeting Order of Business in the Constitution.
28.7 Councillor Jan Osborne SECONDED the amendment.
28.8 Councillor Arthey queried the effect of the amendment and whether the result would be the same as the original.
28.9 The Chairman confirmed that this was the case.
28.10 The Chairman asked Councillor Hinton if he accepted the amendment?
28.11 In response, Councillor Hinton stated that he did not accept the amendment and asked Councillor Ward why if he had no objections to the Motion was he tabling an amendment?
28.12 In response, Councillor Ward stated that the amendment was essentially around how the Constitution was amended. This was normally carried out by either the Constitution Working Group or the Monitoring Officer rather than being directed by a motion.
28.13 Councillor Hinton said that the Constitution belonged to the Councillors and that the matter should be dealt with by the Council.
28.14 The Monitoring Officer gave a point of explanation and clarified that either way would be acceptable however it was custom and practice that the Monitoring Officer would supply the definitive wording for changes to the constitution.
28.15 The amendment was PUT to the Council and CARRIED.
28.16 The substantive motion as amended was PUT to the Council and CARRIED.
It was RESOLVED:-
This motion proposes that this Council allows questions from councillors and members of the public at the Annual Meeting. At the moment, questions have to be held over until the next ordinary meeting following the annual meeting, which can sometimes interfere with democratic accountability because questions may no longer be current and thereby lose their relevance.
As this is a straightforward change to the Constitution, this motion proposes that Council instructs the Monitoring Officer to make the appropriate changes to the Annual Meeting Order of Business in the Constitution.