Agenda item

Please see report re introducing public speaking to Licensing Committee attached.

Members were asked to consider a report asking them to determine the arrangements for public speaking at meetings of the Licensing Committee.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer, presented the report, and reminded Members that at Council on 25^th February, Members had agreed to introduce public speaking at certain Committee meetings, including meetings of the Licensing Committee (parent committee).  It was noted that public speaking arrangements were already in place for some Committee meetings, including Council, the Executive Committee and Planning Committee. However, at other public meetings public speaking rights were not formalised and could only be exercised at the discretion of the Chair.

The background to this change was that a complaint had been received from a member of the public who had called for formal public speaking to be introduced at all public Committee meetings.  The complaint had been considered by the Constitutional Review Working Party who had decided to recommend to Council that formal public speaking be introduced for those Committees where it was not currently in place.

The decision for Members was to consider what type of arrangements should be introduced for the Licensing Committee.  It was noted that other Councils that permitted public speaking at Licensing Committee usually included it as an item at the start of the meeting.  Locally, this was the practice at Worcester City Council.  Members were advised that rules around public speaking should cover registering to speak by a certain cut off point, indicating the subject matter of the public speaking, setting a time limit for individual speakers and setting an overall time limit for all public speaking at a particular meeting.

To ensure consistency, Members were invited to consider aligning the new rules for public speaking at Licensing Committee to mirror the rules currently in place for public speaking at Planning Committee.  It was noted that the time limit for individual speakers at Planning Committee was three minutes per speaker, and that the cut off point for registering to speak was at noon on the day of the meeting. 

It was further noted that the purpose of allowing the public speaking would be for Members to listen to the comments being made by the speakers; it was not intended that there should be any dialogue by Committee members with the speakers, although it would be open to Members to refer to the points made during consideration of the relevant item.

In discussing the report, Members commented that the change to introducing public speaking was a positive one which they welcomed.  It would enable members of the public to pass on their comments on issues under consideration and it would be helpful to Members to be able to receive this type of information.

Members agreed with the suggestion to align the public speaking to the current rules for public speaking at Planning Committee, and were in support of a time limit of three minutes per speaker, a cut-off point for registration of noon on the day of the meeting and an overall time limit for public speaking of 15 minutes.  In discussing the proposals Members did not identify any other additional aspects of public speaking not mentioned in the report that they felt needed to be defined.

In response to questions from Members it was clarified that if a member of the public was late in registering, or wanted to speak about issues that had only just come to light, the Chair of the meeting would still retain the discretion to allow speaking at the meeting notwithstanding that the procedure had not been complied with.

RESOLVED:

That the following arrangements for public speaking at Licensing Committee meetings be adopted:-

1.     That members of the public wishing to register to speak at Licensing Committee shall notify Democratic Services officers of their intention to do so and the subject on which they intend to speak by no later than 12 noon on the day of the meeting.

2.     That the time limit for individual speakers exercising public speaking at Licensing Committee shall be three minutes.

3.     That the maximum time limit devoted to public speaking at meetings of the Licensing Committee shall be 15 minutes.