I haven’t had the pleasure of attending a Ventnor Town Council (VTC) meeting for the last five months or so, due to going to the excellent music course run by Andy Jones on Monday evenings.
Last night the course wasn’t on, so it was off to VTC and it was notable in how the meeting has changed over the period of my absences.
Beyond its having physically moved, the way the meeting was conducted was different.
Public questions restricted
Although the public are ‘allowed’ to ask questions at the beginning of the meeting — fifteen minutes allocated — the way that the public questioners are dealt with by the Chair, Mayor Susan Scoccia, is rather aggressive.
The first point a member of the public dared to raise was if perhaps the public questions could be asked at the end of the meeting, so they could question what was discussed. This was met with an unnecessarily-aggressive NO from the Chair.
As someone said, with a dose of sarcasm, after the meeting, “What an awful idea, informed debate!”
The impression is not that of a celebration of – “wow, there’s a lot of the public now showing interest in the town council. How great,” but it appears that SS was trying to hurry the public along, so the VTC can get down to ‘the important stuff.’
Public questions at any time
In point of fact, the VTC is actually able to take questions from the public at any time during the meeting.
The advice from the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), who perhaps know a thing or two about this, in their Good Councillor’s Guide say the follows …
Public participation is encouraged. It means that members of the public can express their views or ask questions before or during a meeting. It is not part of the meeting itself, however, and the council must agree to adjourn the meeting for that purpose.
Quality Council
Susanne Scoccia was last night very pleased to tell the meeting that VTC would soon become a Quality Council – which is to be applauded.
Perhaps with this in mind she could take a more open approach to public questions?
Image: Nagyman’s photostream
