Public participation at meetings

Question

Our standing orders state:
“Members of the public may make representations, answer questions and give evidence at a meeting which they are entitled to attend in respect of the business on the agenda”

An EGM has been called with the usual wording included “members of the press and public are invited to attend”

The agenda does not include a section for public participation-despite the wording above in our standing orders.
Is there something I am missing here?

Answer 1

An extraordinary meeting is usually a meeting convened for a single agenda item so no, not unusual for there to be no specific "public participation" item on the agenda.  In our standing orders, the public can contribute "at the discretion of the chair" so there is an opportunity for the public to contribute.

Comments

Thanks. Recently, there have been other EGM’s where a public participation section has been included, and indeed, members of the public came and spoke about the item on the agenda. Given that, and our standing orders, is it correct that the Chair has prepared the agenda which goes directly against the PC standing orders? So really the question is - can the chair act in contravention to the PC standing orders?

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Councillors here asked for an *extraordinary* meeting to discuss/vote on single item.  The clerk (in their usual cavalier way) decided to make it an *extra-ordinary* meeting (we didn't know there was a huge difference when using a hyphen) and put a number of extra items on the agenad with participation time.  Needless to say, there was not enough time to consider the one item that was the original spur....and the clerk blamed councillors for talking too much!

Answer 2

Here’s a simple principle….

The entire purpose of a PC is to serve the public interest.
EVERY opportunity to embrace and engage with the public should be grabbed with both hands regardless of anything else.

Comments

Thanks. I completely agree and that is how I try to act.