Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor A Birchall, P Buckley, Mrs M Gray, Mrs I Smith and A Whittaker.

Members of the Panel are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 2000, the Council’s Constitution and the Members’ Code of Conduct.  If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, then the individual Member should not participate in a discussion on the matter and must withdraw from the Committee Room and not seek to influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of personal or prejudicial interest by any of the Members in any of the agenda items.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Community Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 8 February 2006 (enclosed).

The minutes of the meeting of the Community, Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 8 February 2006 were confirmed as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

(a)    Public Speaking Element - Feedback on Visits

         The Chairman invited the members who had attended the following meetings to comment on their visits and perceived effectiveness of the adopted arrangements for public speaking at the meetings:

         (i)      The Chairman and Councillor Culshaw reported on their attendance at West Lancashire District Council’s Planning Committee meeting on 19 January 2006.  The Members had been impressed with the standard of modern facilities offered (eg overhead projection; microphone for each Councillor), and the efficiently organised procedures, with each party being allowed to speak for three minutes on the planning applications.

         (ii)      The Chairman and Councillor Bedford reported on their attendance, with a number of other Panel members, at the meeting of West Lancashire District Council as an Assembly on 25 January 2006.

               The public meeting was held annually and provided a platform for the Council Leader to present his annual report and for other Officers and Partners to make short presentations.

               The public debate had been facilitated by Dave Guest (a BBC celebrity) with speakers being allowed to speak for 5 minutes.  The Panel members noted, however, that relatively few questions had been asked by the public, which might be attributed to the formality of the occasion.

         (iii)      Councillors Mrs M Gray and Mrs I Smith had each attended the meeting of the Rossendale Borough Council and the South Ribble Borough Council on 1 and 15 February respectively.

               Notes prepared by Councillor Mrs Smith, commenting on the procedures practised by each Authority to allow public participation in the Council meetings, had been provided to the Panel members.

(b)    Public Speaking - Key Issues for consideration

         The Panel were invited to consider whether it wished to support a recommendation that the Authority should introduce a regulated and clearly defined system to allow the public to speak and ask questions at Council and/or Committee meetings in the light of the recent survey evidence and Members’ visits to neighbouring Councils.

         After taking into account past evidence, it was the Members’ unanimous view that the Panel should support and advocate the allowance of some form of public speaking at meetings of the full Council, Executive Cabinet, Development Control Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny bodies.  The Panel also had due regard to the key issues and factors that had been identified in the inquiry’s scoping document, and the note presented by Councillor Brownlee expressing her views on public speaking at meetings, when formulating their recommendations.

         It was AGREED:

         (1)         That the Panel supports the introduction of appropriate procedures to allow the public’s participation in the following Member bodies on the lines indicated:

         Council Meetings:

         ?       A 30 minutes open question time be held at the beginning of each ordinary Council meeting to allow members of the public to ask a question on any topic.

         ?      Notification of questions required at least 48 hours prior to the Council meeting.

         ?      Questions to be answered at the Council meetings by the Member(s) most able to give an appropriate response.

         ?      Questioners be allowed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

A copy of the 2005/06 Work Programme is enclosed for consideration.

The Panel received, for information, the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2005/06, which had been agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its last meeting.

The programme included the envisaged timescales for the ongoing scrutiny inquiries and the planned dates for the periodic monitoring of past inquiries.