Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council believes that Local Government should be as open and accessible as possible.  As part of its aim to achieve this objective, the Council's Constitution gives members of the public the opportunity to ask questions of Members of the Cabinet at ordinary meetings of the Council.

 

Questions can be asked irrespective of whether the matters in question are on the agenda for the meeting.  However, the items raised should relate to matters of policy or principle, rather than to private or personal issues.  If you have a personal question and you either have been unable to get an answer from the relevant Council Service Section or else you are not happy with the answer provided you are encouraged to make a formal complaint or contact your Local Councillor with the details.  Information leaflets about the Council's formal complaint procedure are available from the Council's main offices.  Local Councillor contact details are published on this website.

 

Advance notice must be given of questions.  A question may only be asked of a Member of the Cabinet at ordinary meetings of the Council, if it has been delivered to the Chief Executive either in writing or by electronic mail by midday three clear working days before the day of the Council meeting.  Each Questioner must give their name and address.  Details of the dates and times of the ordinary meetings of the Council can be found clicking here.   A list of Members of the Cabinet and their Portfolio responsibilities can be found by clicking here.  

You will need to submit a Question Request Form in order to submit a question to a Council Meeting.

To help meetings run smoothly and enable as many people as possible to participate, the following rules will govern the period in which questions can be put. These are set out as follows:

 

(1)  Question time will be limited to ordinary meetings of the Council.

 

(2)  A question may only be asked if notice has been given by delivering it in writing or by electronic mail to the Chief Executive no later than midday three clear working days before the day of the meeting.  Each question must give the name and address of the Questioner.

 

(3)  No person may submit more than two questions at any one meeting and no more than two such questions may be asked on behalf of one organisation.

 

(4)  The Chief Executive may reject a question if it:

 

(5)  The Chief Executive will enter each question in a register open to public inspection and will, immediately on receipt, send a copy of the question to the Member of the Cabinet to whom it is to be put.  In addition, copies of questions will be circulated to all Members of the Council and made available to the public attending the meeting.  If any questions are rejected then the reasons for rejection will be entered in the register.

 

(6)  The order in which questions are put at a meeting will be the order in which they were received by the Chief Executive, except that the Mayor may group together similar questions.

 

(7)  The Mayor will invite the Questioner to put the question to a Member of the Cabinet.  If a Questioner who has submitted a written question is unable to be present, they may ask the Mayor to put the question on their behalf.  The Mayor may ask the question on the Questioner's behalf, indicate that a written reply will be given or decide, in the absence of the Questioner, that the question will not be dealt with.

 

(8)  The appropriate Member shall answer the question immediately after it is put.  The total time allocated to questions and answers shall not exceed 15 minutes unless the Mayor at his/her discretion, extends that time for the purpose of answering the last question put before the expiration of such period of 15 minutes.

 

(9)  A Questioner who has put a question in person at a meeting may also put one supplementary question without notice to the Member replying to his or her original question.  A supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or the reply.  The Mayor may reject a supplementary question on any of the grounds in Rule (4) above.

 

(10)  Unless the Mayor decides otherwise, no discussion will take place on any question, but any Member of the Council may move that a matter raised by a question be referred to the Cabinet or the appropriate Committee or Sub-Committee.  Once seconded, such a motion will be voted on without discussion.

 

(11)  Any question which cannot be dealt with during public question time, either because of lack of time or because of the non-attendance of the Member of the Cabinet to whom it was to be put, will be dealt with by a written answer.