Agenda item

Feedback from Parish Council and Borough Council Meetings

Minutes:

As requested by the Standards Committee at its meeting on 18th June, 2007, the Chair, Mr Mike Field, Mr Fred Ashmore and Councillor O’Connor reported back on their visits to meetings of the three Parish Councils.  All were unanimous in the view that the Parish Council meetings were well run; the paperwork supplied had been good and they had been made very welcome.  Special mention was made of how particularly well the Britwell Parish Council meetings had been chaired. 

 

Attention was drawn to the perceived difficulty Parish Councils had in addressing complaints from residents regarding anti-social behaviour, parking and highway matters which required action from the Borough Council.  The inability of the Parish Councillors to get the Borough Council to take action on behalf of their constituents seemed to be the source of great frustration at the Parish Council meetings.  The Director of Law and Corporate Governance undertook to raise this issue with the appropriate Borough Council Strategic Directors.

 

The Independent Co-Opted Members also reported back on their impressions of the Borough Council meetings they had attended.  Their impressions were that the meetings had been rowdy and noisy; the level of debate had been poor and non-constructive and Members had demonstrated a lack of respect for the Mayor.  It was pointed out and accepted that this was the behaviour of a few Members and was not representative of the majority of Council Members.  All the Committee Members present agreed that they were not happy about the conduct of Council Meetings and that the behaviour of some Members was not acceptable and needed to be improved.

 

Suggestions for improving behaviour included:-

 

·  Enforcement of the Council Rule requiring all comments made by Members to be addressed through the Mayor whose authority should be respected and observed at all times.

 

·  A review of the seating arrangements at Council Meetings to make it less confrontational and ensure all Members had adequate room where they sat.

 

·  An investigation into the feasibility of providing an automatic electronic queuing recording system for Members wishing to speak at Council Meetings.

 

The Director of Law and Corporate Governance undertook to ensure that the above suggestions were initiated.

 

Resolved -   That the position be noted.