Public questions at cabinet meetings divide opinion

CHESHIRE

- BY BELINDA RYAN, LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER

East should not restrict members of the public from asking questions at future cabinet meetings just because the subject isn’t on the agenda, a councillor has said.The council is due to switch back from its current committee system of governance to a leader and cabinet style in May next year.

But at a meeting of the corporate policy committee, where the new procedures were being discussed, the Conservatives opposed the recommendation that councillors and the public should have to give three clear working days’ notice of questions before cabinet meetings and that the questions must relate to items on that day's agenda.

And they weren't placated when council leader Nick Mannion (Macclesfield, Lab) moved an amendment that those requirements would be waived in circumstances of both urgency or emergency - at the discretion of the leaders and monitoring officer.