The idea seems to have got around that some Council members speak too much at Council meetings. I wonder what the public think of this. Councillors are elected to represent their wards. Ward residents expect us to speak out on their behalf freely, and to be given enough time to make our views known. On all the big important debates which have attracted widespread public interest, the public have been highly critical – but not because some members spoke too much, but because the others spoke hardly at all. If the debate is won by those who say little, the inevitable public reaction is that the decision has been stitched up beforehand by a small clique, who feel  there is no need to justify their actions in public.

And this is exactly the problem. At Ryedale we don’t seem to want to involve the public in decisions. Much of the business of the Council is discussed behind closed doors by a few members in “working parties”.  These working groups are not open to the press and the public, and the recommendations from them to Committees and Council are treated by some members as a formality. They do not like to see these recommendations challenged in public

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At present each member is allowed to speak for no more than five minutes on any motion or amendment. Five minutes is not a long time. One cannot present a complex technical argument in five minutes. So what can be said has to be very simple and short – usually shorter than the subject under discussion deserves. However, there are thirty councillors, and meetings would go on far too long if members were allowed to speak longer. So the five minute rule, however difficult , does represent a sensible compromise.

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However, the Council is now set on changing the rules: the five minute rule is going to become a three minute rule. It is difficult to understand why. You can’t say much in three minutes. Council and committee meetings do not often over-run and when they do, it is usually because there is a lot to discuss. Some committees have had agendas of more than 200 pages.

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The Council has already restricted the number of committee decisions which can be debated at full council, and increased the powers of delegation given to officers. Sometimes consultants’ reports are acted upon without being first presented to members. Ward members are rarely consulted on matters which directly affect their wards. Often the first we know of a recommendation which affects our wards is an officer report to a committee.

Some people may think this makes for efficient decision making. Others, myself included, feel that Ryedale has become a dictatorship where the opinions of only a few matter, and only a pretence is made at democracy and true public consultation.

Reducing the five minute rule to a three minute rule is part of this process.