Council meetings: Public Participation

There are a number of ways you can get involved in the Council’s meetings: 

Attend a meeting

You are welcome to attend council meetings held in public including all the main Committees, Panels and Forums. The council meetings section of the site has more information on all our Committees and meetings, including membership, a calendar, and reports and agendas from previous meetings. Agendas are published at least five working days before the day of the meeting. 

Occasionally there may be items which have to be discussed in private, but these will be left to the end of the meeting and the public galleries cleared before the private discussion continues. 

Ask a question at a Council meeting 

You can ask questions of Members of the Cabinet at ordinary meetings of the Council by submitting your question to democratic.services@rbwm.gov.uk no later than midday, seven clear working days before the day of the meeting.  

Your submission should include your name, your address, the Cabinet Member to whom it will be put and the question itself must not be more than 60 words long. No one can submit more than two questions per meeting. When we are discussing the budget, the question must relate directly to the budget and when we have to call extraordinary meetings, we won’t accept public questions. 

Before the meeting we will publish a response to your question and invite you to attend the meeting in person or join remotely. You will have one minute to ask a supplementary question. The Council will allow 30 minutes for all questions to be dealt with. 

Further details are contained in the Council's Constitution - Part 2 - Council Procedure Rules 

Submit a petition to Council 

You can ask a Councillor to submit a Petition to any ordinary meeting of the council on your behalf. The Petition should contain at least 25 signatures, although a petition with fewer signatures may be acceptable if those people represent a significant proportion of people have a direct interest in the issue of the subject of the Petition. 

If the Petition is referred to Cabinet or a relevant Committee then you will be invited to attend the relevant meeting or the future council meeting to which it is reported and will be invited to speak for up to five minutes. Further details on how to present a petition are contained in the Council's Constitution - Part 2 - Council Procedure Rules. 

Speak at Cabinet 

You can speak at Cabinet meetings by registering to speak with democratic.services@RBWM.gov.uk no later than midday on the day of the meeting. You can speak for three minutes but only on a topic on that meeting’s agenda. Each item will allow nine minutes for all speakers to be heard.  

Speak at a Development Management Committee 

You can speak at Development Management meetings for both the Maidenhead and the Windsor and Ascot committees respectively by registering to speak with democratic.services@rbwm.gov.uk no later than midday, two working days prior to the meeting. You can speak for three minutes in relation to a planning application listed on the agenda. Part 7F of the Council’s Constitution outlines this process in further detail.

Speak at an Overview and Scrutiny Panel

You can speak at the Corporate, Place and People Overview & Scrutiny Panel meetings by registering to speak with democratic.services@rbwm.gov.uk no later than 5pm, two working days prior to the meeting. A request to speak must be related to an item on the agenda for the meeting and you are entitled to speak for up to three minutes per item. 

If you would like to suggest a topic to be considered by one of our Overview and Scrutiny Panels at a future meeting, you can make a suggestion.