Speak at a council meeting

Members of the public can register in advance to speak at a council/committee meeting, either to ask a question or make a statement, at:

• Full Council - in the form of a question
• Planning Committee - in respect of an application on the agenda
• Overview and Scrutiny Committee - in respect of a report on the agenda.

Each of these has its own arrangements in place to govern public speaking requests but in all cases you must register to speak in advance of the meeting.

In general, public speaking is only permitted on items discussed in public and does not apply to exempt or confidential items.

Asking a question at full council

Members of the public can ask questions to Cabinet members at full council meetings. This excludes annual meetings and extraordinary meetings.

To ask a question, you must submit your request using the link below by 5pm on the eighth working day before the meeting. Include your name, address and the name of the Cabinet member the question is for. Questions received after the agenda is published will be added to the online agenda.

You can submit one question per meeting. You will have up to three minutes to ask your question. Public questions are limited to 15 minutes in total.

Questions are normally taken in the order they are received, although the Chairman may group similar questions together.

If you attend the meeting, the Chairman will invite you to ask your question. If you cannot attend, you can ask the Chairman to ask it on your behalf. The Chairman may instead arrange a written response or decide not to deal with the question.

If you ask your question in person, you can ask one supplementary question without notice. It must relate directly to the original question or the response given.

Planning Committee

Members of the public can speak at Planning Committee meetings about planning applications being considered.

For each application, one person can speak in support and one person can speak against the proposal.

Each speaker has up to three minutes.

To request to speak, use the online form below or email publicspeaking@dover.gov.uk (opens in new tab).

The democratic services team must receive your request by 5pm on the second working day before the meeting. Requests are considered in the order they are received.

• More on having your say on planning applications

Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee examines council decisions and reviews matters affecting the district and its residents.

A member of the public may speak at an ordinary meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of matters contained within the agenda for that meeting.

A maximum of three minutes is allowed for each speaker, with a total of 30 minutes allocated for public speaking at the meeting.

The democratic services team must receive the request to speak by no later than 5pm on the second working day prior to the date of the meeting. Requests to speak are dealt with in the order they are received.

Requests to speak should be submitted either using the link below or by email to speakingatscrutiny@dover.gov.uk (opens in new tab)

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