Shift from daytime to evening for councillors as change to meetings recommended

A councillor has won cross-party support for a motion which called for a time shift in Redcar and Cleveland Council committee meetings. Councillor Curt Pugh said moving some meetings from

standard weekday working hours to a slot of 6pm or later in the evenings would be more accessible for members who worked, along with parents and other residents who may wish to attend. The

motion was opposed by some independent councillors living in rural East Cleveland who cited safety concerns about travel particularly on dark, wintry nights. But it won broad support from

other groups with a substantial majority of councillors voting in favour of such a change. Conservative councillor Pugh, who represents the Normanby ward, said it was a “step in the right

direction” since current scheduling could “present a barrier to participation”. He said: “The purpose of the motion was to try and encourage more people to get involved in local democracy.

“Whether that’s enabling more working people to stand for the council, or trying to encourage more participation from the public. I’m glad this didn’t become a political issue and was

pleased to receive support from all corners of the chamber.” Cllr Pugh said the political groups on the council had been consulted over his motion, which was worded thus: ‘To recommend that

all committees of Redcar and Cleveland Council consider scheduling their meetings outside of the traditional working hours of 9am to 5pm, and instead consider scheduling meetings in the

early evening [the early evening being 6pm onwards].’ It means each council committee - of which there are several - will now have to discuss what time of day they meet, bearing in mind the

recommendation. The motion also said the council’s monitoring officer and officers from democratic services should provide “any logistical or legal advice required to facilitate more

inclusive scheduling”. Cllr Pugh told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the local authority should also “seriously consider” live streaming its meetings, to further aid public

participation. A number of councils regularly do this, but Redcar and Cleveland does not, the only online representation of meetings held being a YouTube upload of the monthly full council

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