Agenda item

Working Group to present their findings.

The Chairman had agreed to re-arrange the agenda so that agenda item 10 could be discussed next.

The Chairman referred to the Working Group that had met at the beginning of March to discuss the issue of Questions at Council. Although the issue had been discussed previously by the PDG nothing had come to fruition.  The Working Group’s recommendation to the PDG was to introduce questions at Council similar to the model used at the County Council. The questions would be put to the Leader, Executive Members, the Chairman/Vice-Chairman of PDG’s and the Opposition Leaders.  Questions could not be put to the Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the Development Control Committee, Licensing or Governance and Audit.  No questions could be asked of Officers and no questions could be asked at the Budget meeting.  The period of time for questions was 45 minutes and questions would be taken on a first come first served basis following the introduction of a queuing system installed in the Council Chamber.   If any questions could not be answered a response would be sent within three working days and this response would be available at the next Council meeting.  There was to be no political band standing or point scoring and each Member was to show respect to each other regardless of political party. Only one question per Member was allowed.  The pilot was to take place over six months.

A proposal was put for the recommendations as outlined by the Working Group. It was suggested that no supplementary questions be included in the recommendation and the proposer was happy to include this amendment.  Another suggestion was made that perhaps the first meeting after an election should not include questions either.  Further discussion followed on what happened at the County, each political group gave a list before the meeting of who would be asked what question and this was given to the Chairman before the meeting. It was then for the Chairman to use his discretion who asked which question in which order.  A Member who was in favour of questions and was also a County Councillor said that as a matter of courtesy he informed the Member he was going to ask a question and what it was about a few days before the meeting.  Members were in agreement that respect and courtesy must be given to all Members.  A question was asked about the number of questions that could be asked and it was confirmed that only one question could be asked per Member.   Confirmation was also sought about the minutes and it was confirmed that only the name of the Member asking the question and the name of the Member answering the question and the topic were to be recorded.  It had been agreed by the Working Group that a pilot take place and clarity was sort about how this would be progressed but as the PDG discussed the issue it was suggested that perhaps a motion at Council on 21st April should be put introducing the pilot scheme.  It was therefore proposed and agreed that a motion be put to Council on 21st April 2016 to introduce a pilot scheme based on the recommendations from the PDG Working Group.