These notes are provided to assist persons considering making
a Deputation to a meeting
A.
General Notes
1. Deputations can
appear before Council Meetings other than the meetings convened
annually (1) for electing the Mayor and (2) to make appointments to
the Cabinet, committees and boards, and related appointments.
2. A deputation can
only appear in connection with a matter which relates to a function
of the Council.
3 A
deputation to a Council meeting may only be made by Local
Government electors for the Borough of Havant who represent groups
or organisations working or represented locally which are
recognised as such by the Council.
4. The purpose
of the deputations procedure is to allow deputees to address the
Council orally. Deputees will not therefore be able to put
any documents or written material to the Council at the meeting as
there is no practical opportunity for members or officers to study
this without delaying and disrupting the conduct of the
meeting.
5. If there has
been a deputation within six months of any previous appearance on
the same or similar topic (irrespective of whether or not the
member(s) of the deputation might be different) then no such new
deputation will be received until that time limit has
expired. If a deputation appears before any one of the
meetings open to deputations as listed at paragraph 6 below, that
deputation will not be permitted to appear before a Council Meeting
on the same or similar subjects until a period of six months has
elapsed since the first appearance before any one of following
meetings:
- a Council
Meeting
- the
Cabinet
- Overview
and Scrutiny Boards
- Strategy
and Regeneration
-
Environmental and Community
- Standards
Committee
- Development
Management Committee
- Licensing
Committee and
- Licensing
Sub-Committee
- Staffing
Matters Committee
B
Registering Your Intention to Speak
1. Notice of the
wish to be received as a deputation must be given in writing or by
email to the Democratic Services Team Leader by no later than the
Thursday of the week before publication of the Council Summons
takes place.
2. In all cases,
the notice must briefly specify the subject or the function on
which the deputation wishes to speak.
3. You will be
advised as soon as practicable whether or not the request to be
received as a deputation has been agreed.
C. About
Deputations Generally
1. A deputation can
consist of one but not more than two persons.
2. It is for the
members of a deputation to decide who will address the
meeting. Where it is two persons, both may speak if they
wish.
3. There is a limit
on the total time allocated for deputations at any one
meeting. Currently, this is thirty minutes. No questions are
allowed to be asked of the deputation.
4. No deputation
may address the Council for more than five minutes.
D.
Procedure
1. Ordinarily, all
meetings commence at 5 pm. All meetings take place in the
Council Chamber.
2. It is the
intention and wish of members that deputations be heard as soon as
possible after commencement of the meeting,
HOWEVER, all meetings may, if they
wish, vary the order of their business so that deputations (and any
consequent debate on the subject matter) can be taken earlier in
the order of business.
3. Accordingly,
whilst every effort is made to be as helpful as possible, it is
very difficult to give a precise indication to the members of a
deputation as to the time when the matter in which they have an
interest will be reached. The Democratic Services Team Leader
(contact details are set out below) may be contacted on the day of
the meeting in an effort to clarify the situation, but otherwise
the members of a deputation are asked to be in attendance in the
public gallery in the Council Chamber at least fifteen minutes
before the normal starting time (normally 4.45 pm).
A warning note - if the subject matter of a deputation relates
to a matter before the Council for consideration and has been
debated and decided upon by the time a deputation arrives, it will
not then be possible for the deputation to appear.
6. The deputation
will be shown from where speeches will be made in the Council
Chamber and where to sit prior to and after delivery of the
deputation.
7. All deputations
are heard in succession. The subject matter (if the deputation is
in respect of something actually before the Council) will be
debated much later in the meeting.
8. The members of a
deputation may, if they wish, remain in the public gallery until
that matter (if the deputation is in respect of something actually
before the Council) is dealt with (provided it is not a
confidential matter when both the press and the public are
excluded).
Staff to Contact on
Deputations
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Mr Lee Abraham
Democratic Services Team Leader
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Tel No: (023) 9244 6230
email:
lee.abraham@havant.gov.uk
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Fax: (023) 9248 0263
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Democratic Services Team
Havant Borough Council
Civic Offices
Civic Centre Road
Havant, Hants P09 2AX
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Contents:
A. General Notes
1. Deputations can appear before meetings of:
(a) the Cabinet;
(b) Development Management Committee,
(c) Environmental and Community Board,
(d) Strategy and Regeneration Board,
(e) Licensing Committee,
(f) Staffing Matters Committee[2],
and
(g) Standards Committee
2. A deputation can only appear in connection with something on
the Agenda for a particular meeting.
3. The purpose of the deputations procedure is to allow deputees
to address the Board/Cabinet/Committee(“Committee”) orally.
Deputees will not therefore be able to put any documents or written
material to the Committee at the meeting as there is no practical
opportunity for members or officers to study this without delaying
and disrupting the conduct of the meeting.
4. If there has been a deputation within six months of any
previous appearance on the same or similar topic (irrespective of
whether or not the member(s) of the deputation might be different)
then no such new deputation will be received until that time limit
has expired. However, "same or similar topic" does not apply to
applications for planning permission considered by the Development
Management Committee. If a deputation appears before any one of the
meetings open to deputations as listed at paragraph A1, that
deputation will not be permitted to appear before any one of the
other listed meetings on the same or similar subjects until a
period of six months has elapsed since the first appearance before
any one of the listed meetings.
B
Registering Your Intention to
Speak
1. Notice of the
wish to be received as a deputation must be given in writing or by
email to the Democratic Services Team (contact details are given at
the end of these notes) not less than one working day before the
start of the meeting (other than when the meeting is on a Monday,
when notice has to be in the previous Thursday). “One working
day before the start of the meeting” means 48 hours. Notices
received after the deadline will not be accepted
2. In all cases,
the notice must briefly specify the subject on which the deputation
wishes to speak and whether the deputation is in support or against
the matter to be discussed.
3. Acknowledgement
of the request for a deputation will be made whenever practicable,
but given the timescale at B1 above, this may not always be
possible. You will be advised as soon as practicable whether
or not the request to be received as a deputation has been
agreed.
4. The address and
telephone number of a deputee will not be given to other deputees
unless the Council has been given written permission to pass on
these details.
C. About
Deputations Generally
1. A deputation can
consist of one but not more than two persons.
2. It is for the
members of a deputation to decide who will address the
meeting. Where it is two persons, both may speak if they
wish.
D Time
limits
1. The maximum time
allowed for any one deputation to address the meeting is five
minutes in total. No questions are allowed to be asked of the
deputation.
2. If there is more
than one deputation wishing to appear on a specific matter, the
total amount of time allowed for speaking remains five
minutes. This means (for example
only) that if there is one deputation in
favour of a matter, it may speak for five minutes, but if there are
two wishing to speak against, those two would have to agree between
themselves as to how they will divide up the five minutes in total
that is available.
3. Clearly a point
could be reached where there were a number of people wishing to
make a deputation for or against a particular matter. Given
that only five minutes is available to either side, the various
deputations would wish to consider appointing no more than two
spokespersons in order to make maximum use of the overall time
available. As notification of a request to appear as a
deputation can be left until 48 hours before a meeting (see A4
above), in all probability, the "pooling of resources" will have to
be discussed and agreed on the day. (This is not to preclude
the Committee agreeing that a particular matter is so controversial
that the question of deputations for that matter may be dealt with
in some other way.)
E.
Procedure
1. Ordinarily, all
meetings commence at 5 pm. Meetings normally take place in
the Council Chamber or Committee Room 1.
2. Although it is
the intention and wish of members that deputations be heard as soon
as possible after commencement of the meeting, a period of time up
to a maximum of one hour is allowed at the beginning of every
meeting for "uncontested" matters to be dealt with first.
These "uncontested" matters may or may not include confidential
items (in respect of which members of the press and public will be
asked to leave the meeting whilst any discussion takes place).
3. This period of
one hour is only ever exceeded if, when that time is up, a matter
mentioned under E2 is still being discussed, in which case the
receipt of deputations starts when the debate on that particular
matter is finished.
4. This means that
it is possible that the meeting will not commence hearing
deputations until 6 pm.
HOWEVER, all meetings may, if they wish, vary the order of
their business so that deputations (and any consequent debate on
the subject matter) can be taken earlier in the order of business
and before 6 pm.
5. Accordingly,
whilst every effort is made to be as helpful as possible, it is
very difficult to give a precise indication to the members of a
deputation as to the time when the matter in which they have an
interest will be reached other than to say that deputations will be
heard at 6 pm but may be heard earlier. The Democratic
Services Officer concerned (contact details are set out below) may
be contacted on the day of the meeting in an effort to clarify the
situation, but otherwise the members of a deputation are asked to
be in attendance in Committee Room 1 or the Council Chamber at
least fifteen minutes before the normal starting time (normally
4.45 pm).
A warning note - if the subject matter of a deputation has
been debated and decided upon by the time a deputation arrives, it
will not then be possible for the deputation to appear before the
Committee.
6. If time permits
prior to commencement of the meeting the deputee will be shown from
where speeches will be made in the Council Chamber or Committee
Room 1 and where to sit prior to and after delivery of the
deputation.
7. Deputations are
heard with the subject matter to which they relate. After all
deputations for a subject matter have been heard, the Committee
will make and announce their decision.
8. In cases where
it is known beforehand that the views of the deputation accord with
what the officers might be recommending and there are no
deputations wishing to appear to put the contrary view, the
Chairman will normally ask the members of the Committee if they
oppose the officers’ recommendation. If the members indicate that
they will not speak against the officers’ recommendation, the
Chairman will ask the deputee if he or she still wishes to address
the Committee. Please note that it is open to the Chairman
concerned to decide to deal with the matter in any other way.
9. When the
particular item is reached on which there may be a deputation or
deputations, the order of business will normally be as
follows:-
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(a)
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There will be a presentation by the Officer(s)
concerned (if required), including questions by the Committee
Members of the Officers.
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No Time Limit
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(b)
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The deputation(s) opposing the matter to be
discussed will be heard.
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A total of 5 minutes is allocated for those
objecting
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(c)
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The deputation supporting the matter
to be discussed will be heard
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A total of 5 minutes is allocated for those
supporting
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(d)
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Members of the Committee, who have
declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the proposal will
be heard
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A total of 5 minutes is allocated for those
Members with personal and prejudicial interests
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(e)
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Elected members of
the Council who are not members of the Committee who have indicated
in advance of the meeting that they wish to address the
Committee
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(No time limit)
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(f)
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The matter will be debated, including
questions by the members of the Committee of the Officers, and a
decision made.
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9. The exception to
8 above would be where the matter is one where a resolution
excluding the public during the debate has been passed. In
such instances, only 8(b), 8(c), 8(d) and 8(e) would take place,
with any debate taking place later in the meeting without the
public being present.
10. The
members of a deputation may, if they wish, remain in the public
gallery until that matter is dealt with (provided it is not a
confidential matter when both the press and the public are
excluded).
These notes do not apply to deputations at meetings of the
Council.
STAFF TO CONTACT ON
DEPUTATIONS
Or
DemocraticServicesTeam@havant.gov.uk
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Address:
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Democratic Services Team
Havant Borough Council
Civic Offices
Civic Centre Road
Havant, Hants P09 2AX
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