Agenda item

To consider a recommendation from the Audit & Governance Committee.

The Chairman of the Audit & Governance Committee set out a recommendation from the committee proposing changes to the public participation process following a cross-party review.

 

Cllr R Biggs proposed the following recommendation, and this was seconded by Cllr S Flower.

 

“That the Procedure Rules for Public Participation be amended as follows:

 

(a)           That the Council accepts the first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each Full Council meeting on a first come first served basis in accordance with the current deadline for receipt of questions and statements.

 

(b)           That in exceptional circumstances the Chairman of Council has discretion to allow more than 8 questions.

 

(c)           That any questions received over the first 8 questions, the resident or organisation will be asked if they wish to receive a written response from the Portfolio Holder.

 

(d)           That members of the public or organisations can submit a maximum of 1 question or 1 statement at each meeting of the Full Council.

 

(e)           That each question or statement submitted be up to a word count of 450 and the response from the Portfolio holder be a maximum of 300 words.

 

(f)             That statements received by residents or organisations be published, in full, before the Full Council meeting as a supplement to the agenda and published, in full, as an appendix to the minutes but will not be read out at the Full Council meeting to allow more time for questions and responses.”

 

Cllr B Bawden proposed an amendment with the addition of (e) “A person who has submitted a question may ask a follow-up question in the meeting, remotely by teams, or in writing, once Dorset Council’s reply to the question has been received.” This was seconded by Cllr K Clayton.

 

Upon being put to the vote the amendment was LOST.

 

Following debate, on the original recommendation was put to the vote.

 

Decision

 

That the Procedure Rules for Public Participation be amended as follows:

 

(a)                    That the Council accepts the first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each Full Council meeting on a first come first served basis in accordance with the current deadline for receipt of questions and statements.

 

(b)                    That in exceptional circumstances the Chairman of Council has discretion to allow more than 8 questions.

 

(c)                    That any questions received over the first 8 questions, the resident or organisation will be asked if they wish to receive a written response from the Portfolio Holder.

 

(d)                    That members of the public or organisations can submit a maximum of 1 question or 1 statement at each meeting of the Full Council.

 

(e)                    That each question or statement submitted be up to a word count of 450 and the response from the Portfolio holder be a maximum of 300 words.

 

(f)                      That statements received by residents or organisations be published, in full, before the Full Council meeting as a supplement to the agenda and published, in full, as an appendix to the minutes but will not be read out at the Full Council meeting to allow more time for questions and responses.”

 

Reason for the decision

 

To enable the Chairman of Council to manage the half hour public participation period effectively and allow each person who submits a question to read out the question in full and receive a response.