More chance to have your say at council meetings? - Local

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More chance to have your say at council meetings?

Published on 04/10/2012 08:00

Openness is the order of the day for Borough Hall chiefs who want to extend the amount of time that the public can ask questions at council meetings.

Bedford Borough Council’s general purposes committee met on Tuesday night and discussed proposals to remove a 30 minute limit for questions from members of the public at meetings, and rules which limit the amount of questions to six.

While presenting the proposals Councillor Henry Vann claimed that the new move would avoid the unfairness of the current ballot system where on at least two occasions members of the public have been restricted from asking their question.

Mr Vann said: “We are committed to doing all we can to make it as easy as possible for local residents to hold their elected councillors to account and to enable public scrutiny. The Lib Dems have already achieved a string of successes in opening up the council to further public scrutiny and engagement, and we want to continue this process by removing unfair obstacles to residents who take the time and trouble to come to council meetings.

“We should be encouraging more and more people to take part and to engage with their council if they wish, not retaining arbitrary barriers which are simply unjustifiable. With options for online broadcasting becoming more common and cost-effective all the time, we should also be looking to help those people who would like to follow council meetings but cannot get to Borough Hall.”

The committee has now ordered a report into the proposals which will then be presented to the full council. The report will also look at ways that council meetings could be broadcast for the public to view online.

What do you think of the proposals?

Email your views to editorial@timesandcitizen.co.uk

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