Trimdon Foundry Parish Council Policies and Procedures

TRIMDON FOUNDRY PARISH COUNCIL
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION POLICY

Trimdon Foundry Parish Council wishes to encourage public participation during its meetings in order to use this as one means of consulting with the public.

However, the Council recognises that rules must control the manner of participation in order that the Council Meeting may continue to operate effectively.

Public participation is an opportunity to ask questions not to make statements, Accordingly the following rules must be observed for public participation at meetings.

  1. Public participation will take place at every full Parish Council meeting subject to the Chairman’s permission.
  2. Public participation is an opportunity to ask questions only and not an opportunity to make statements. All questions to be asked should be submitted to the Clerk at least 48 hours before the meeting at which you wish to ask the question.
  3. Public participation will take place at the beginning of the meeting and will last for a maximum period of 15 minutes.
  4. Each member of the public will be allowed a maximum of 3 minutes to ask a question.
  5. The Chairman will determine in what order members of the public will be allowed to ask their questions, having regard to who has previously asked questions at that meeting and previous meetings, who arrived at the meeting first, and whether questions to be asked are the same or similar to other questions already asked.
  6. In allowing public participation the Council is aware that this forms only one means of consultation with the public, and that no decisions other than undertaking further research or writing to relevant bodies can be taken at the meeting where the matter is raised.
  7. In answer to questions about services the Parish Council provides answers where possible at the meeting. If this is not possible a written response will be given to the questioner within 14 days of the meeting, the contents of which will be relayed to the next Parish Council meeting.

 


Page added 11th November 2014