‘Welcome to the House of Fun’ – Councillors determined to make the Annual Town Meeting an engaging evening for Marlborough residents

At Monday evening’s meeting of the full Town Council (25 March) Councillors went to great lengths to come up with ideas to encourage residents to attend the Annual Town Meeting on Monday 15 April.

The Annual Town Meeting is a unique and important date in the town’s civic calendar.  The only formal opportunity for Town to meet Council in open forum, and where residents can find out what the Councillors have been doing on their behalf, understand and discuss the basics of the precept (what we all pay for local services as part of the Council Tax), and introduce any issues of life in Marlborough direct to their electoral representatives that can be improved or dealt with by the actions of the Town Council or its members.

On the face of it the Meeting is a legal requirement and so could end up being a dull, dry and turgid affair where Councillors outnumber residents two to one, and those residents in attendance are only suckered in by the offer of free sausage rolls, buns and tea.

It shouldn’t be like that at all, or not here in Marlborough anyway.  And the Councillors want it to be an engaging and even a ‘fun’ session (although there will be free tea and buns, but not sure about sausage rolls).  And an event where residents can leave the meeting feeling something has been achieved:  that they understand more about the workings of the Council, they have met with Councillors and the Mayor, and have a better understanding of what the Council can do for them.  They can raise local issues that are important, but may not yet be on the Council’s radar, and even request a poll of residents if it’s an important issue that affects a wide spread of residents.

And, they may even leave feeling that becoming involved in the activities of the Council is a good step forward, or even considering standing for a Council seat.

Councillors discussed many different ideas for the format of the meeting with the aim of increasing engagement and attendance.  Making it fun, ‘spicing it up’ without quite going to the extreme of dressing up as clowns or installing a merry-go-round in the Court Room.

Plenty of ideas were introduced, all of which seemed to centre on the word ‘engage’.  The focus was aimed at making the meeting more interesting and cutting down ‘barriers’ between council and resident, and as Deputy Mayor Cllr Hall stated – it is about getting people to turn up.

This year’s Annual Town Meeting will be an opportunity for residents (customers?) of the Council to meet the members of the Council, a process which is at the core of any democratic system.  Residents will be able to discuss (and influence?) the course of the Council across the coming year, there will be refreshments(!) but key is the fact that it’s the one opportunity in the year where the electors can interact with the elected.  Welcome to the Town Hall, the House of Fun…..

To find out more about the Annual Town Meeting, click here.