Issue - meetings

The Deputy Head of Legal Practice presented this report, which invited the Committee to recommend a pilot scheme to Council that would allow members of the public to make written representations to full Council meetings, without giving prior notice. He explained that this would not affect the existing arrangements for asking questions at Council and submitting petitions. The current arrangements did not allow members of the public to make submissions after the agenda had been published.

It was noted that the Chairman would be able to vary or suspend the procedure, if, for instance, a large number of requests were received.

Members of the Committee made the following points:

·         The public should be able to speak at Council without notice.

·         The public should be able to ask a supplementary question without notice.

·         Only councillors should be able to speak at Council without prior notice.

Councillor Mark Howell proposed that the recommendation should be amended to ensure that only South Cambridgeshire residents were permitted to make written representations under the proposed scheme. Councillor Bridget Smith expressed concern that this could prohibit both residents from neighbouring authorities and representatives of partner organisations from making representations on cross border issues. The Deputy Head of Legal Practice explained that time constraints could make it difficult to determine whether the member of the public was a resident of the District and it could been seen as discriminatory to prohibit participation on the grounds of their residency. Councillor Mark Howell’s proposal did not have a seconder and so the proposal fell.

It was suggested that it was unlikely that a large number of residents would take advantage of this proposed change and so there was no reason to object to the proposed pilot scheme.

A vote was taken, and with 8 votes in favour and 1 abstention, the Committee

RECOMMENDED THAT COUNCIL            Introduces a twelve month pilot scheme to allow the public to make written representations at full Council meetings in accordance with the scheme set out at Appendix A.