Speak at Cabinet

What you need to know about speaking at Cabinet meetings.

Which meeting you can speak at depends on the decision to be made.

Speaking on Cabinet decisions at Overview or Cabinet

The more important cabinet decisions have pre-decision scrutiny at the Overview Committee.

Meetings take place two to three weeks before the Cabinet meeting. The public are encouraged to speak at the Overview Committee so that views are heard in enough time for them to be taken into account before decisions are made.

If a report on the decision is listed on the forward plan of upcoming Cabinet decisions to go to the Overview Committee you can only speak there and not at Cabinet. 

Allowing people to give views early at the pre-decision stage of the process means Cabinet have more time to think about what has been said before decisions are made.

If an item isn't being discussed at Overview Committee you can ask to speak at Cabinet. This means for every decision being made there is an opportunity for members of the public to speak. 

You can watch a live Cabinet meeting or access a recording.

Representation from the public

Before the start of a Cabinet meeting, you can come along and address councillors about anything relating to the local district.

No discussion will follow, but Cabinet members might refer to an issue raised if it relates to that meeting's agenda, or they might take it away to discuss later.

The session for all speakers will last a maximum of 20 minutes - this can be extended up to another 10 minutes in exceptional circumstances. Each speaker gets up to three minutes.

You must live or work in the Canterbury district to speak.

Ask to speak 

Everyone needs to follow the same process to speak, no matter which meeting you want to speak at. 

Once an agenda for the meeting is published, you must contact democratic services or call 01227 862 009, no later than 12.30pm the working day before the meeting.

You'll need to give the following information:

  • your name and email address or phone number
  • the name of the agenda item you want to speak on
  • if you're speaking on behalf of an organisation or group - the name of it