How to find out about a Town Council or committee meeting

You can find out about meetings by visiting the North Petherton Town Council website northpetherton-towncouncil.gov.uk .

A calendar of meetings is available showing all the scheduled meeting dates , and agendas, supporting papers and minutes for the meetings are published so that people can read and / or download them.

Meeting agendas are put on the noticeboard outside the North Petherton Community Centre at least 3 working days before the meeting.

Who can attend a meeting?

The public are welcomed to attend and observe all formal meetings but if there is any confidential business to be dis-cussed a resolution will be passed excluding anyone from the meeting other than Town Councillors, officers and specialist advisors.

Community Time

Each agenda will have an item called Community Time listed; this provides an opportunity for members of the

public to ask questions or raise any issues that are relevant to the meeting / Committee Individual speakers are permitted a 3 minute maximum of speaking time and are asked not to repeat any points that have already been made.

Community Time is the only part of the meeting when members of the public are allowed to speak at the meeting.

It is helpful to let the Meeting Administrator know before the start of the meeting that you would like to speak during Community Time and what topic / agenda item you will be speaking about.

Meeting Protocols and Procedures

At a meeting the Chair is in charge, and they will usually sit with the Town Clerk next to them in a position that means the Councillors and the public can be easily seen. . This is to help make sure that the meeting runs legally and smoothly throughout.

All items that will be discussed in the meeting are listed on the Agenda and only those items can be discussed at the meeting. If any agenda items contain confidential information the reports will not be available to the public, examples of items that may be confidential are legal and personnel matters.

Councillors will indicate if they wish to speak during the meeting by raising their hand and may only speak when the Chair invites them to do so.

To make a decision the meeting has to pass a resolution – so a Councillor will propose a course of action and if this gets a seconder a vote will be taken.; the vote will be taken by a show of hands. The vote does not need to be unanimous , for most matters a simple majority of councillors voting in favour of a proposal will suffice.

The Meeting Administrator will make a note of the main topics discussed during the meeting and the decisions made and use the notes to produce draft minutes. The draft minutes are confirmed or amended at the next meeting.