The Council at its meeting on 21 June 2001 agreed that 15 minutes should be set aside at the beginning of the Council's monthly Executive meetings to allow members of the public to ask questions.

Any member of the public who wants to raise a question at a meeting should:-

(a)submit the question in writing to the Member Support Services Manager by 5.00pm on the Monday prior to the Executive meeting.  This will allow a detailed answer to the question to be given at the meeting.  If advance notice of the question cannot be given, the Chairman of the meeting has the discretion to allow questions on matters which are felt to be urgent;

(b)ensure that normally questions are no longer than 50 words in length;

(c)ensure that the question does not relate to a specific planning matter (this is specifically excluded from the public question time);

(d)ensure that the question relates to something over which the Council has some control and is suitable to be considered, ie, that it is not derogatory to the Council or relates to matters which the Council could consider confidential.