City council meetings will be later and shorter

HOLDING SHORTER meetings later in the day will make local democracy more accessible to the public, according to council leaders in Sheffield.

Starting next Wednesday, Sheffield Council’s monthly full council meetings will begin at 5pm, rather than 2pm, and finish at 8pm.

Meetings can often last more than four hours, and the authority hopes the new time will keep things more streamlined.

It is hoped that the later scheduling will also allow people to attend who might otherwise be at work.

The first hour of meetings will still be set aside for petitions and public questions.

Most committee, scrutiny and cabinet meetings will still be held during the day.

The trial change, which will continue until April next year, is part of a plan to get more people involved in the city’s democracy.

Deputy leader Olivia Blake is chairing a cross-party working group set up to review council meetings.

She said: “We want people to have the opportunity to access the democratic process, so we’re making changes so more people can get involved.

“We established a cross-party working group to look at how we can do things differently. Not everyone is able to attend meetings in the working day or stay for the whole debate and we want to find a way to make the meetings more accessible and engaging to the public.

“The trial changes to the full council meetings are the start of this and we want the public’s feedback on them.”