We welcome questions at council meetings from members of the public, which are held throughout the year.
You are also welcome to raise issues at any time with your ward councillor, which may be the most appropriate first point of contact for the issue you wish to raise.
Questions to Full Council
At the beginning of each Full Council meeting 15 minutes is dedicated to questions received from the public.
If you wish to ask questions, you:
- may submit up to three questions to any one council meeting
- will need to give your name
- may submit no more than 100 words per question
- you may include a supporting statement, no longer than 250 words, to accompany each question
Your question or questions must be received by the Chief Executive by 12pm, 8 working days before the day of the meeting. For example, if the meeting is held on a Thursday, the deadline would be midday on the Monday the week before.
Questions to the Executive
At the beginning of each Executive meeting 30 minutes is dedicated to questions received from the public.
If you wish to ask questions, you:
- may submit up to three questions to any one council meeting
- will need to give your name and address for each question and indicate which member of the Executive, including the Leader, that your question is for
- may submit no more than 100 words per question
- may include a supporting statement, no longer than 250 words, to accompany each question
Your question or questions must be received by the Chief Executive by 12pm, 7 calendar days before the day of the meeting. For example, if the meeting is held on a Thursday, the deadline would be midday on the Thursday a week before.
How to ask questions at a Full Council or Executive meeting
You are invited to present your question in person at the meeting.
If you are unable to attend, you may request that the question is deferred to a meeting later in the year.
Depending on the meeting, the Mayor or Leader of the Council, will decide whether the question will be given a written response or that the question will not be dealt with.
You may ask one supplementary question at the meeting.
A question may not be dealt with at the meeting if:
- there was a lack of time to respond to the question
- the councillor to whom the question is addressed to is not in attendance at the meeting
- not all information is available
A written response will be provided if your question is asked during the meeting.
If there is a reasonable belief that your question will not be answered on the night, you may be contacted ahead of time and offered an alternative option.
Reasons why your questions may be rejected
Your questions may be rejected by the Chief Executive or Monitoring Officer if:
- it is a matter about which the Council has no responsibility, nor affects the borough
- it is defamatory, frivolous, or offensive
- requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt information
- it is the same or very similar to a question that has been submitted to a previous meeting, or a topic reviewed by the Scrutiny Committees, within the past six months