The Full Council meets six times a year in the evening. The Council committees variously meet either monthly, every two months or quarterly, again mainly in the evenings. Councillors sometimes agree to set up working groups to meet on an ad hoc basis for particular issues. These ad hoc groups generally meet in the daytime.
These are the arrangements agreed by the current councillors. When a new Council is elected, they have the opportunity to review the frequency and timing of meetings, and to change the number and remit of committees and sub-committees.
We offer virtual attendance at all of our meetings if requested, but the law as it stands means that – for Full Council and committee meetings – councillors must attend in person. We are looking at ways to make use of virtual attendance until the Government changes the law – one idea is to hold informal meetings virtually, so that the formal meetings can be kept as short as possible.
The meetings schedule on our website gives an indication of the number of meetings, but remember – not all councillors have to attend all meetings, so it’s not as onerous as it looks!