Agenda item

To receive questions from the public under Rules 4a.2(f) and 4a.8-18

Mr Paul Kornycky asked the following question:

‘Members will be aware that at Full Council Meetings they have a right, enshrined in the constitution, to ask ‘a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affects the District’.

Prior to the ‘new’ constitution, residents had an equivalent right albeit with less generous timings. This right was in practice for many years and was clearly laid out in the Council published guidance on public speaking.

In December 2017 this right was severely restricted to ‘only Agenda business’ despite it putting Horsham District completely at odds with all other district or borough councils in West and East Sussex, perhaps all of England, where presumably such Councils welcomed the active participation of their residents, as part of a healthy democracy.

Article 1 of Horsham’s constitution states the purposes of the constitution, and includes:

-    Support the active involvement of people in the process of decision-making

-    Create a powerful and effective means of holding decision-makers to public account

-    Ensure that those responsible for decision making are clearly identifiable to local people and that they explain the reasons for decisions.

The blocking of an ‘open’ public question time is clearly contrary to these principles and is a black mark for Horsham’s openness, transparency and accountability.

Please explain why Horsham District Council may, in Agenda Item 7, Governance Minute GO/16, continue to restrict this participative right of residents when most, if not all, equivalent councils embrace such free input as an essential part of a 21^st century democracy?’

Councillor Ray Dawe, Leader of the Council, replied:

‘At the heart of this question is a reference to 21^st Century democracy and the ability of residents to have what you describe, Mr Kornycky, as free input to the Council.  You suggest that by allowing only questions that are relevant to a Council meeting agenda the ability for any resident to have free input to the Council is somehow diminished.  To respond to your words, looking at 21^st Century democracy, it must surely be reasonable to compare it to 20^th Century democracy.  How did it work then?  How was a resident some 20 odd years ago and beyond that time to raise a point or ask a question of a Council Member or Council Officer?  Basically this was by letter or by a telephone call. 

Compared to that pre-internet age, how does this Council now, again to use your words, embrace free input?  Well that ability to write a letter or make a phone call of course still exist.  We now have the internet.  Not only does that give the public immediate access to all Council meeting papers and minutes but most of all it enables any member of the public to email and ask a question at any time they choose; of a Member or an Officer or indeed of any named selection of Members or Officers and  get an answer.  It is this 21^st Century ability, used in great number, that we see today.  I can speak for myself that the number of such communications I receive is very large and other Members and Officers must receive equal number of communications too.  In addition, any person since the turn of the 21^st century, i.e. since it became law in 2000, has the right to access any relevant discussion emails or papers on matters by requesting those from the Council under the Freedom of Information Act and you have used this yourself. 

Councillors come to a Council meeting such as this one to discuss and make decisions on agenda items where they have briefing papers and these are matters which will almost certainly have been to a Committee or PDAG for discussion beforehand.  So what would therefore be the purpose of anyone waiting until there is a Council meeting to ask a question that is not relevant to the agenda when in fact they can ask it at any time? There is nothing stopping such a response being sent to a newspaper or put on social media.  Whereas in the pre-21^st Century world they would have had to write a letter to a newspaper or indeed stand on a soapbox at a street corner.

Our current constitution ensures there is opportunity for members of the public to ask questions relevant to the agenda at Council meetings, ie they can fully participate and question us at the actual time when decisions are being made and in doing that we are fully supporting the active involvement of our residents in that process.  In your question you mention that the Council should welcome the active participation of residents as a part of healthy democracy.  And as a modern 21^st Century Council we certainly do this.  We offer free, open and easy access to every resident in all the ways I’ve mentioned thus offering a powerful and affective means of holding decision makers to public account in a way inconceivable to Members or the public 20 or so years ago which is when I suspect many Councils’ constitutions were written.

Finally, in responding to your question, it would seem reasonable to see if this public questions aspect is as important to our residents as you say it is or if indeed is used much at all.  Given your concern we would expect this to show in a high number of questions from a diverse number of people.  So what is the evidence?  I have checked through the life of this Council since May of last year and in fact have gone back to January 2019 to see who has asked questions.  I find that in that time there have been just five questions, not including this one tonight.  Have they come from a varied number of residents?  The answer is that four of the five came from you or Mrs Kornycky, In addition on two occasions you have made statements to the Council in the same period.  I hope this answers your question.  I leave Councillors to draw their own conclusions about this matter.’ 

As a supplementary question, Mr Kornycky asked:   

‘If what you say is a very persuasive argument, why is it that all these other Councils still value having an open question time for their public and Horsham doesn’t?’

Councillor Ray Dawe replied that the point was that constitutions, by and large, had been written in an age when there wasn’t the internet, and that there was no need to wait to come along to a Council meeting to ask a question.