Members of the public may ask questions of the Leader of the Council and any Chairman of a Committee at Ordinary Meetings of the Council. Thirty minutes will be set aside for this purpose.

How to register your question:

A question may only be asked if notice has been given by delivering it in writing or by electronic mail to the Chief Executive no later than 12 noon on the day of the meeting.

Each question must give the name and address of the questioner and must name the member of the Council to whom it is to be put.

At any one meeting no person may submit more than two questions and no more than two questions may be asked on behalf of one organisation.

Questions will be asked in the order of them being received, except that the Chairman may group together similar questions.

What kind of questions cannot be asked?
Your question may be rejected if it:

¨ Is not about a matter for which the local authority has a responsibility or which affects the District;
¨ Is defamatory, frivolous or offensive;
¨ Is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of the Council in the past six months;
¨ Requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt information;
¨ Requires an answer which pre-judges or pre-empts a future Council decision.

Asking the question at the meeting:
A copy of all questions will be circulated to all members and will be made available to the public attending the meeting.
The Chairman will invite the questioner to put the question to the member named in the notice. However, if the questioner who has submitted the question is unable to be present they may ask the Chairman to put the question on their behalf. In this case the Chairman may ask the question, indicate that a written reply will be given or decide, in the absence of the questioner, that the question will not be dealt with.
One supplementary question may be put by the questioner, without notice, to the member who has replied to his or her original question. The supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or the reply. The Chairman may reject a supplementary question on any of the grounds listed above.

If your question cannot be dealt with:
Any question which cannot be dealt with during public question time, either because of lack of time or because of the non-attendance of the member to whom
it was to be put, will be dealt with by a written answer.

What happens next?

Unless the Chairman decides otherwise, no discussion will take place on any question, but any member may move that a matter raised by a question be referred to the appropriate committee. Once seconded, such a motion will be voted on without discussion.

Record

You should be aware that a note of your question and any supplementary question will be taken and will be publicly available in accordance with the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

Please note that neither the Council nor its Members or Officers accept any legal liability for any loss or damage caused to any person arising from the introduction and operation of this voluntary non-statutory public participation procedure.