You reported (Climate change meeting sees a rise in temperature, Beacon 9th October) that the mayor refused to take a question from a member of the public because he had not had at least 15 minutes’ notice of it before the meeting. Under the council’s standing orders he is, of course, right, but your readers may not know that the rule is quite a new one.

The story goes back only to August 2017 when the then town clerk circulated a “Protocol for public participation at council meetings”. It was intended to bring in a 15-minute-notice rule, but the council decided not to do so until it had reviewed all its standing orders.

In October 2018, the councillor leading that review commended the 15-minute-notice rule because it was “what normal practice used to be here” and it was unanimously approved.

But the 15-minute-notice rule had never been part of Monmouth Town Council’s standing orders. The 2011 standing orders, for example, stated as long-held practice that: “The chairman may [...] allow any members of the public to address the meeting in relation to the business to be transacted at that meeting.” And the 2017 version said much the same. Neither said anything about needing to give any notice before the meeting.

The idea behind insisting on notice was to stop the repeated suspension of proceedings (more than a dozen times at some meetings) to allow people to speak, but the solution lumped in the period officially set aside on the agenda for the public to speak with the other times when even now people are often allowed to speak without notice.

It would surely be good practice if the public participation time on the agenda were freed from the notice rule and it was left to the chair’s discretion whether to give a hearing to other

contributors.

Charles Boase (Monmouth)