Depends how you define "normal" of course. It seems that a lot of councils go out of their way to operate as some sort of closed secret society and answerable to no one. If there is an agenda item specifying audience participation then it is part of the meeting. Now if the council has a habit of only minuting "decisions" made at the meeting ( in my opinion a failure in their obligations under the code of conduct on openness and transparency rather than a desire to alleviate the perceived "clerical burden" on the clerk) you end up with "a member of the public spoke". Terrible position to take by a group of people who should be serving the community that elected them as representatives. Weeding out of vexatious or emotional requests from the floor is the job and the measure of strength of an experienced chair. Avoiding the issue or "kicking them into the long grass" is a failure of the chair.
Of course how the question is placed before the council is paramount in that it should be polite, accurate, factual and defined as to what action to be sought or expected, The chair should then either answer immediately or give a specification as to how and when the person will be answered and all of this should be minuted. But hey that's just good practice of course!
