Questions at Anytime.
A new way of holding cabinet members and senior staff to account will become enshrined in the Powys County Council constitution.
At the full council meeting on Thursday, July 30, councillors voted in favour of continuing with the “Questions at Anytime” format.
Questions on policy and political issues go to councillors on the cabinet, while questions of a operational nature should go to the relevant head of service.
The Democratic Services committee had discussed and backed the proposal following a review of the system back in March, and had been expected to be discussed at a full council meeting in May.
Democratic Services committee chairman, Cllr Elwyn Vaughan said: “Last autumn we had a discussion about the ability to ask questions at any time to officers and portfolio holders.
“it was trialled up to March, and the consensus of opinion after holding a review is that it worked well.
“Hence the recommendation today is that is embedded in the constitution with the relevant amendments done with a furthe review in 12 months time.”
The idea follows a model working at Newport City Council.
Councillors can expect an answer in 10 days and the question and response is uploaded to PCC’s council’s website.
It was part of a move to try on streamline full council meetings, by cutting down on the number of questions that are asked by councillors to cabinet or senior staff.
The number of questions was seen to be increasing adding time onto meetings.
The average time for a full council meeting in Wales is two hours and 39 minutes.
Some of the full council meetings PCC have held over the last couple of years, have taken over four hours and one was timed as taking six hours and 19 minutes.
The proposals was approved unanimously with 62 votes for, with no votes against or abstentions.
