Author: simon
Susan Scoccia And VTC Public Questions
Tuesday, 10th June, 2008 at 1:52 pm, Isle of Wight
I haven’t had the pleasure of attending a Ventnor Town Council (VTC) meeting for the last five months or so, due to going to the excellent music course run by Andy Jones on Monday evenings.
Last night the course wasn’t on, so it was off to VTC and it was notable in how the meeting has changed over the period of my absences.
Beyond its having physically moved, the way the meeting was conducted was different.
Public questions restricted
Although the public are ‘allowed’ to ask questions at the beginning of the meeting — fifteen minutes allocated — the way that the public questioners are dealt with by the Chair, Mayor Susan Scoccia, is rather aggressive.
The first point a member of the public dared to raise was if perhaps the public questions could be asked at the end of the meeting, so they could question what was discussed. This was met with an unnecessarily-aggressive NO from the Chair.
As someone said, with a dose of sarcasm, after the meeting, “What an awful idea, informed debate!”
The impression is not that of a celebration of - “wow, there’s a lot of the public now showing interest in the town council. How great,” but it appears that SS was trying to hurry the public along, so the VTC can get down to ‘the important stuff.’
Public questions at any time
In point of fact, the VTC is actually able to take questions from the public at any time during the meeting.
The advice from the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), who perhaps know a thing or two about this, in their Good Councillor’s Guide say the follows …
Public participation is encouraged. It means that members of the public can express their views or ask questions before or during a meeting. It is not part of the meeting itself, however, and the council must agree to adjourn the meeting for that purpose.
Quality Council
Susanne Scoccia was last night very pleased to tell the meeting that VTC would soon become a Quality Council - which is to be applauded.
Perhaps with this in mind she could take a more open approach to public questions?
Image: Nagyman’s photostream
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June 10th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
It has always seemed to me to be hardly worth the effort going to a council meeting if you are only allowed to put questions before it starts. Surely people will need to ask questions after the council have discussed each issue rather than wait to the following meeting to raise a point on what was discussed at the previous meeting.
By then it could be too late but perhaps that is the reason it is done the current way.
You never know you could even have someone in the audience who is an expert at telling the difference between stone and breeze blocks.
Or someone to point out the insanity of permitting a new building that is going to waft toxic fumes across a paddling pool.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
We need to sympathise with Susan. She is, after all, one of Pugh’s girls!
June 10th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Reminds me of the question session before the big education vote in March. Because there were (understandably) rather more questions that usual, it was suggested that an extra 15 minutes be allocated. This had to be put to a vote (thus taking up more time) but the councillors decided that it wasn’t important enough to delay their discussion which was, of course, no discussion at all, as they’d all made their minds up anyway.
With regards to VTC becoming a ‘quality council’ one has to wonder what it was before…
June 11th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I believe that there will be some major shocks when the elections are held next May, both at local and County level. Confidence soon becomes arrogance.
One other point. The venue was changed to accommodate the continuous protestations of an ex-blogger who now no longer attends. Given that the atmosphere was like a sauna on Monday and little room for more than a few members of the public, should the meetings be moved back “upstairs”?
June 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
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