Member Questions are a means of revealing/exposing current issues to the entire Council and getting a formal response from the responsible person. I had two Member Questions (MQ’s) on the Agenda for the RBWM 22/9/2026 Council Meeting The questions were about parking/traffic and the PSPO on catapults. Neither question was heard by Councillors because the Agenda item ran out of time.
There were 17 MQ’s and an allotted time of 30 minutes. In my opinion the procedure fails to account for the number of MQ’s. The Mayor has the optional power to extend the MQ’s section of the meeting but chose to not hear the remaining MQ’s – so mine (and others) were not heard.
The Agenda note on MQ’s procedure reads as follows: The Council will set aside a period of 30 minutes to deal with Councillor questions, which may be extended at the discretion of the Mayor in exceptional circumstances. The Councillor who provides the initial response will do so in writing. The written response will be published as a supplement to the agenda by 5pm one working day before the meeting. The questioner shall be allowed up to one minute to put a supplementary question at the meeting. The supplementary question must arise directly out of the reply provided and shall not have the effect of introducing any new subject matter, for which one minute will be given. A Councillor responding to a supplementary question will have two minutes to respond.
I suggest that it was obvious before the meeting that with 17 MQ’s there would be insufficient time allocated. Allowing the questioner one minute and the responder two minutes – let’s say 17 x 3 = 51 minutes. Surely the procedure needs reviewing? I will see what I can do to improve the situation.