1. Rights of the Public
1.1 The Council welcomes public participation in its work. Members of the public have a number of rights in their dealings with the Council. Their rights to information and to participate are explained in more detail in Chapter B3 (Access to Information Procedure Rules). Some of these are legal rights, whilst others depend on the Council’s own processes. The local Citizens’ Advice Bureau can advise on individuals’ legal rights.
1.2 Members of the public have the following rights:
(a) Voting and petitions: Members of the public on the electoral roll for the area have the right to vote and sign a petition to request a referendum for an elected mayor.
(b) Information: Members of the public have the right to:
(i) Attend meetings of the Council and its committees except where confidential or exempt information is likely to be disclosed, and the meeting is therefore held in private.
(ii) Find out from the Forward Plan what key decisions will be taken by the Council and its committees and when.
(iii) See reports and background papers, and any records of decisions made by the Council and its committees, except where confidential or exempt information is likely to be disclosed.
(iv) Inspect the Council’s accounts and make their views known to the external auditor.
(c) Complaints: Members of the public have the right to complain to:
(i) The Council itself under its complaints scheme or any other statutory scheme; and
(ii) The Local Government Ombudsman after using the Council’s own complaints scheme.
1.3 Where members of the public use specific Council services, for example as a parent of a school pupil, they have additional rights. These are not covered in the Constitution. Members of the public have the right to:
(a) Vote at local elections if they are registered;
(b) Contact their local councillor about any matters of concern to them;
(c) Obtain a copy of the Constitution;
(d) Attend meetings of the Council and its committees except where, for example, personal or confidential matters are being discussed;
(e) Petition to request a referendum on a mayoral form of executive;
(f) Find out, from the Council’s Forward Plan, what major decisions are to be discussed by the committees or decided by the officers if delegated by the committees, and when;
(g) See reports and background papers and any record of decisions made by the Council and its committees;
(h) Submit petitions in accordance with the Council’s Petitions Scheme;
(i) Complain to the Council about the standard of service, actions or lack of actions by the Council, its staff or contractors affecting an individual customer or group of customers;
(j) Complain to the Local Government Ombudsman if they think the Council has not followed its procedures properly. However, they should only do this after using the Council’s own complaints process;
(k) Inspect the Council’s accounts and make their views known to an external auditor.
2. Responsibilities of Members of the Public
2.1 Members of the public must not be violent, abusive or threatening to councillors or officers and must not wilfully damage property owned by the Council, councillors or officers.
3. Public Speaking at Full Council Meetings - Public Question Time
3.1 There will be an opportunity for up to four members of the public to ask questions at meetings of the County Council, excluding extraordinary or special meetings of the Council and the first annual meeting of a new Council, to the Leader of the Council and the chair of any committee.
3.2 If more than four members of the public apply to speak, questioners will be invited to defer their question to the next meeting. The Democratic Services Officer will ensure that all steps are taken to inform the “unsuccessful” speakers in advance and, where they either choose not to defer their question or do not reply, a written reply will be sent within ten working days after the meeting.
(Any decision to exceed the limit will be at the discretion of the Council Chair.)
3.3 Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the Council meeting should provide the following details to the Council’s Democratic Services team by no later than 12.00 noon, five working days before the meeting:
(a) Name and contact details of the person asking the question.
(b) The name of the organisation if the question is being asked on their behalf.
(c) Details of the question to be asked.
(d) The name or position of the member of the Council to whom it is to be put.
(e) Brief information about how the subject of the question relates to the person asking the question (e.g. as a resident of the area, as a recipient of a service, as the owner of a property affected by a proposal).
3.4 Only one question may be asked by each member of the public or organisation and the question must relate to a single topic. A question which is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of the Council or one of its committees in the past six months will not be allowed.
3.5 The Chair will decide whether to reject a question should the Monitoring Officer inform them that the question asked:
(a) Is not about a matter for which the local authority has a responsibility or which affects the county and is something the Council is able to influence;
(b) Is illegal, improper, defamatory, frivolous or offensive;
(c) Requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt information;
(d) Is within the remit of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority;
(e) Relates to a planning application;
(f) Is from an employee of the Council, except when acting as trade union representatives or private individuals, as the employee has sufficient channels of communication, both internally and through their representative bodies;
(g) Is from a provider the Council contracts with or chooses not to contract with unless unrelated to those specific contracts;
(h) Relates to separate appeal, adjudication, litigation, mediation or dispute resolution;
(i) Is about the conduct of individual councillors or employees; or
(j) Is in multiple parts.
3.6 Members of the public shall have up to two minutes in which to ask the question.
3.7 The named member will respond to the question which may take the form of:
(a) A direct oral response of up to a maximum of two minutes;
(b) Where the desired information is in a publication of the Council or other published work, a reference to that publication; or
(c) Where the reply cannot conveniently be given orally, a written response circulated later to the questioner and made available to all members of Council and to the public.
3.8 After the response has been given, the questioner has up to a further minute in which to put one supplementary question or seek clarification of the response to the original question. The supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or the reply and must not introduce new material.
3.9 The recipient of the original question then has up to a further two minutes in which to reply to the supplementary question.
3.10 No debate will be allowed on any question or the response.
3.11 If the questioner cannot be present at the Council meeting to pose their question, a written question will be accepted and answered in writing.
4. Public Speaking at Committee or Sub-Committee Meetings
4.1 The County Council recognises the value that can be added by enabling contributions by the public to meetings of council committees and in order to facilitate this, the chair or the person presiding at a meeting of a council committee may, at their absolute discretion, grant permission to a member of the public to speak during the meeting.
4.2 Speakers will usually only be permitted to speak once in any debate and speeches will usually be time limited to three minutes. Permission to speak may be refused if the anticipated contribution:
(a) Is not relevant to the agenda items of the meeting;
(b) Is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of the Council, a committee, or a sub-committee in the past six months;
(c) Is illegal, improper, defamatory frivolous or offensive;
(d) Requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt information;
(e) Is from a provider the Council contracts with or chooses not to contract with unless unrelated to those specific contracts;
(f) Relates to separate appeal, adjudication, litigation, mediation or dispute resolution;
(g) Is about the conduct of individual councillors or employees; or
(h) Is in multiple parts.
4.3 In order to assist meeting organisers members of the public* wishing to speak at a committee meeting** are asked to make a request in writing no later than 12.00 noon three working days before the meeting via letter to the Democratic Services Officer, Democratic and Members' Services, New Shire Hall, Alconbury Weald, PE28 4YE or via e-mail (this information is available at the bottom of the agenda front sheet) and provide the following details:
(a) Name and contact details of the person making a comment or asking a question;
(b) Details of the request to speak: The full text of the question to be asked or a list of the main points regarding a comment about a matter on the agenda.
(Requests to speak received after the three day deadline may be permitted, at the discretion of the relevant committee chair.)
* For the purposes of this guide a “member of the public” is defined simply as anyone who lives or works in Cambridgeshire or is affected by a decision made in Cambridgeshire.
** This procedure does not apply to meetings of Full Council and Planning Committee as these meetings have their own procedures.
4.4 If registered to speak, members of the public should arrive at the venue (usually New Shire Hall) at least fifteen minutes before the start of the meeting and report to the Democratic Services Officer present. The register of speakers will be kept by Democratic Services and provided to the chair in advance of the meeting. No more than three speakers will normally be permitted per subject at a meeting (subject to the chair’s discretion). Only one question or comment may be allowed per speaker.
4.5 When the meeting reaches the agenda item, the chair will ask the member of the public to speak. The member of the public is asked to behave appropriately for the nature of the meeting and show courtesy and respect to everyone present. They should not make any remarks which are offensive, defamatory, insulting or discriminatory. The time limit to pose a question or make a comment will be three minutes for each speaker. The Democratic Services Officer will time each speaker to ensure that they do not exceed three minutes. The member of the public must cease speaking when so instructed by the chair. The chair may allow questions from committee members to the speaker for clarification only.
4.6 The chair will deal with the question or statement, or request that an appropriate member or officer reply orally. If this is not possible, the member of the public will be provided with a written answer using the contact details provided within ten working days.
4.7 If there should be a large number of requests for public speaking regarding one or more items on the agenda, the chair may take steps to ensure that the meeting can be conducted in an appropriate fashion; for example, move the agenda item to the beginning of the meeting or limit the number of speakers. If the chair should decide to limit the number of speakers, the Democratic Services Officer will ensure that all steps are taken to inform the “unsuccessful” speakers in advance and a written reply will be sent within ten working days after the meeting.
4.8 This process does not apply to county councillors as their speaking rights as non-committee members are covered in Chapter D2 (Committee Procedure Rules). It also does not apply to employees of the Council except when acting as Trades Unions representatives or private individuals, as they have sufficient channels of communication, both internally and through their representative bodies.
5. Petitions
5.1 The Petition Scheme is set out in full in Chapter B2 (Petition Scheme), and includes guidance on submitting petitions, on types of petition that the Council will and will not consider, and on what action the Council may take when it receives a petition.
[Chapter B1 (Participation in Meetings) was last amended on 11 February 2025]
A PDF version of this chapter is available to view or download on the CMIS section of the Council’s website, along with a PDF version of the full constitution.
