Public Participation at Council Meetings

Feb 19, 2024

Members of the public have a legal right to attend meetings of a parish council and its committees, except where they are excluded (by a resolution of the meeting) for specific items which need to be discussed in confidence, for example, staffing matters or tenders for contracts.

They have no legal right to speak at meetings of the council or its committees. However, it is good practice and as part of community engagement to set aside time for public participation at meetings. It is undesirable to allow members of the public to speak throughout the meeting as this runs the risk of confusing the roles of councillors, who participate in the meeting, and members of the public who observe it.

A specific time should be set aside for public participation and standing orders should say what this time shall not exceed, with individual contributions being limited to say 3 minutes. If there is a possibility that many people will wish to speak, the chair could encourage people not to repeat comments made by earlier speakers, or even ask for a single representative to be appointed. Even many people will run out of original things to say quite quickly.

It is up to your council when to allow public participation. A good place is near the start of the meeting immediately after declaration of interests, so that everyone is aware if a member has a prejudicial interest. Comments made during public participation could be (very briefly) minuted; there is certainly no need for a verbatim record. Names of members of the public should not be minuted. Libellous, offensive, and discriminatory comments should not be minuted as the council is liable for what is in its minutes even if someone else said it. You should just minute the total number of public and press in attendance.

Neither councillors nor the clerk is under any pressure to respond immediately to comments made during public participation other than those which relate to items on the agenda. A comment could be referred to the clerk to write to, or meet the speaker, or could form the basis for an agenda item at a future meeting. Members of the public do not have a right to force items onto the council agenda, but a good council will want to respond to public concern in some way.

The public have a legal right to attend council and committee meetings, but they do not have a right to disrupt them. Members of the public should not heckle or otherwise disrupt and should respect the rulings of the chair.

If a record of public and press attending needs to be taken for fire safety regulations this must be destroyed as soon as the meeting is over, there is no need to keep a copy.