Councillors vote to cut down number of Full Council meetings and keep all on Monday evenings

At Monday (28 February) night’s meeting of the full Town Council, Councillors voted to reduce the number of full Town Council meetings held across a year from eleven to seven.

Why? The number of actual meetings that are being held, sometimes ‘stacked’ together on the same evenings which means that sometimes an evening session can last for three and a half hours, well beyond the standing orders limit of two and a half hours.

In practice, as meetings stray later into the evening, attention and concentration can inevitably dip and if quality of decision-making is important (it is) then making such decisions towards the end of several hours of continuous session might not be the best way forwards.

Councillors pointed out that many long meetings allowed focus to become detached and with clear chairmanship and direction, many decisions could be made faster and not deviate into digression. Discussions should be ‘to the point’.

The agenda raised two options – as well as the reduction of Full Town Council meetings from eleven to seven, an alternative was to continue with all eleven meetings but move Committee meetings (some or all?) to Tuesday evenings.

Whilst the first option lay within the legal requirement (the full Council is only required to meet four times in any year), the second option of adding Tuesdays meant that there would be an additional cost to the Council for staff time, approximating to £1,350 for the year.

Councillor Loosmore was concerned that the sheer volume of discussion time required would not be enough were the cut down calendar applied, and that the gap in the Summer between the June and September meetings may prove too long.

Councillor Cleasby stated that the recommendation and reasons for the change were clear and proposed that the new seven meeting calendar were approved, but adding that flexibility could and should be applied in the event of issues requiring discussion and decision between planned meetings, or when the meeting times allowed weren’t enough.

Cllr Ross agreed, thanked the Town Clerk for his research and preparation into this proposal and noted that it should go ahead.

Councillor Hall was concerned about the frequency of Planning Committee meetings and that some applications could time out. It was noted that were such a possibility arise it would be addressed as and when.

Other Councillors stated their broad agreement to the proposed calendar whilst pointing out the length of the Summer gap.

At the vote Councillor Cleasby’s proposal was adopted by a majority decision.