Agenda item

Mike Smith asked the Leader of the Council the following question:

Minutes:

I note from the published agenda for the full meeting on the 6th July 2020 that there are a very large number of agenda items, some of which have not been addressed despite being on the agenda since September 2019.  In particular there are some ten Member questions of which eight, submitted by Conservative members of Council, seem to have little useful purpose and will consume time unnecessarily, and which will probably result in none of the later agenda items such as Motions being debated.

 

Indeed, five of these Member questions were on the agenda for the previous meeting but were withdrawn, as they were presumably deemed unimportant then and I doubt much has changed in three weeks.

 

As a more specific example, Item 27.3, is a question from the Deputy Executive Member for Climate Emergency to the Executive Member for Climate emergency asking “…how can this Council work to continue the huge benefits that the environment has received from lower carbon emissions ...” during lockdown – surely  if they both attend their sub-committee meetings and read the various reports and plans prepared for those meetings, there is absolutely no need for such a question at full Council – surely a press release would be better?

 

So my question is, in the interests of ensuring the Council can efficiently discharge its duty to provide a public democratic process of debate on Motions raised by Members, should Agenda items 27.3 to 27.10 inclusive be moved to the end of the Agenda or better yet, be withdrawn?

 

Answer

The Council Meeting Agenda has evolved over a very long period and is a little arcane. I would say that it pre-dates me.

 

It is interesting that the thrust of your question is not consuming time unnecessarily and yet you ask a question which is very similar to 27.2. and does not the asking of the question – similar to 27.2 – in duplicate, have the effect of endangering the debate of any Motions?

 

I appreciate that you believe that Conservative Members’ questions “have little useful purpose” but is that not disenfranchising most of the Members? You will appreciate that that there are five Motions, four of which are Lib Dem Motions, which is two and a half hours of debate for a meeting which should be three hours in total.

 

“The interests of ensuring the Council can efficiently discharge its duty” surely is an opportunity for members of the public and Councillors to ask questions, to enact whatever business needs enacting and for the Executive and Chairmen of other Committees to update Council on their activities.

 

Supplementary Question

You have just said that it takes two and a half hours to debate five motions on the Agenda. So, when can time be found for these motions to be debated? Otherwise, they will roll on forever.

 

Supplementary Answer

That is not a matter for me. As I said, the Agenda pre-dates me. It has evolved over a long time and is a little arcane. We have a Constitution Review Working Group to look at these questions and propose any variations for the Council to determine.