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Posted by Anonymous to swanage view
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Council meetings
What's happened to public debate at the town council?This last meeting ran for around 10 minutes.Okay, so there was 15 minutes of questions before that.But it's not that long ago that the monthly meetings, which are the only ones held in the evenings and when most local residents have the time to attend, used to have some discussion and last a couple of hours, or even longer.Everything these days is brushed away into a quiet corner where it can be talked about without anyone knowing much about what was said.
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Posted by Anonymous to swanage view at 11/02/2005 12:03:10 AM
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Posted by Anonymous to swanage view
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4 comments:
It does seem that the council want to avoid any public involvement. Otherwise perhaps they would use their website to provide information for those who want to know what's going on — perhaps even go wild and invite comment! And even regularly publish their newsletter (which they seem to only bring out just before an election — funny that).
Sad to say not many people turn up to public meetings even when the chance is there to speak. Sometimes because they are badly publicised, but even the recent Parish Assembly only touched on two or three topics, and that's an evening dedicated to the public, with no time limit.
To be fair, the public participation time at the monthly council meetings often does run for up to half an hour, although debate is sometimes cut short (and rambling answers can eat into the time). But it's not a pleasant experience. it always seems a confrontation, with the sense of questions being thrown back in people's faces, rather than providing an opportunity to engage and inform the community.
Maybe things would be different if there was not such a massive majority of ten Tory councillors and only one other. Perhaps they have got so used to doing what they want, they think they don't need to do things any differently.
I always get the feeling that there is some hidden agenda there. That’s why they feel uncomfortable.
It seems to have steadily got worse, that is the meetings becoming more abbreviated and dealing with less of any public interest, with each year this mayor has been in office.
He does have the benefit of an overwhelming Cons majority, and that's always likely to increase if there's a byelection.
I've heard that on occasion, when there's no business that can legally be classed as confidential, councillors are asked to stay behind for an informal chat and the residents ushered out, and that these informal chats are sometimes longer than the council meetings they have followed.
Would anyone expect any kind of democratic debate with this cosy coterie of conservative con-artists? In another post on this site someone called this Tony's Britain. Well you only have to look around you to see the way things are run in Victoria's England!
Peverilpen
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