How to speak at council meetings

You may ask to speak at most council meetings including Full Council, the Planning and Regulatory Committee, the Executive and Policy and Scrutiny panels. You must be a resident, a business ratepayer or entitled to vote in North Somerset.

You must email or write to democratic services with your name and address and the subject you wish to speak about. We must receive this by noon on the day before the meeting. If you wish to speak about a planning application, we also need to know if you wish to speak in support or against the application.

You will usually have five minutes to speak, but this may be reduced if there are more than six people who want to speak. You do not normally have to provide a transcript in advance but sometimes the chairman may ask for one for legal reasons.

Usually only two speakers are allowed for each planning application, one in support and one against. You will need to agree a spokesperson with other supporters or objectors. 

If you cannot agree, the chairman will select a spokesperson. You will usually have three minutes to speak but where there are a large number of speakers the chairman may reduce the time allowed.

You will usually have three minutes to speak, at the discretion of the chairman. The Executive will hear up to four people.

You will usually have five minutes to speak, at the discretion of the chairman.

If you wish to present a petition at full council, please email or write to our Democratic Services team. 

Please provide us with

• your name
• address
• the subject matter of your petition

We must receive this at least seven working days before the meeting. You will have three minutes to speak about the petition.

Larger petitions to be debated

You can request for your petition to be debated by the council or the appropriate Policy and Scrutiny Panel. 

To qualify, your petition will need to meet the following guidelines

• For council debate - you will need 2500 or more signatures
• For Policy and Scrutiny Panel debate - you will need between 500 and 2499 signatures
• the signatures will need to consist of
  • residents
  • business rate payers
  • electors of the area

Exclusions to debate

Petitions will be excluded from debate if they meet the above threshold and they address

• planning decisions
• licensing decisions
• any other decision that already has an appeals process in place
• a duplicate petition
• any matter that has been considered in the last 12 months

Journalists and members of the public can film, record, tweet and blog from council meetings. Be aware that by attending a meeting you may be included in broadcast material.

Some meetings may be video streamed to improve openness, understanding and accountability of local decision making. These meetings are streamed live and are also available on-demand within 48 hours.

See the live and on-demand webcasts section on our YouTube channel.

When you speak at a council meeting, you should expect your contribution to appear on the webcast. If this creates a problem for you, please contact democratic services before noon on the day before the meeting at which you wish to speak.

Videos are made available for public viewing for three years after the date of the meeting.

While the camera focuses on the debate taking place, members of the public walking through the council chamber may inadvertently appear in camera shot. The public observation areas are not in the field of view.

The audio for the webcast is taken from the chamber microphone system which does not pick up ambient sounds from the public areas.

People coming to open meetings have the right to:

• film
• audio record
• take photographs
• use social media.

Commentary to filming is not allowed during meetings.  If you’re going to a meeting you may be filmed by others at the meeting.