A woman with an interest in local government matters has urged Brighton and Hove City Council to change the deadlines for public questions.
Alison Woolfenden said that the council’s constitution required public questions to be submitted two days before the meeting papers were published, requiring people to “resort to guesswork”.
She said: “It risks excluding residents, those who want to read reports, understand proposals or who aren’t familiar with council procedures.
“A system that only works for insiders isn’t an inclusive one.”
Ms Woolfenden said that the council had changed its policy for scrutiny committees last October but not for meetings of the full council.
Council leader Bella Sankey said that there were several ways that the public could engage with committees.
At full council meetings, the public could ask questions on any subject and present petitions and send deputations.
Councillor Sankey said that longer deadlines were needed to manage the large number of representations.
She said: “I do support your request to review these deadlines to allow for questions to be raised on reports on the agenda for full council.
“I therefore asked officers to bring forward proposals to enable this adjustment.”
Councillor Sankey said that a report on the proposed changes should be considered at the council meeting scheduled in July.
