The Monitoring Officer presented a report, in order to update members on the survey that has recently been undertaken, in relation to the timings of meetings survey, the feedback from which was shown in Appendix 1 to the report.

The details of the feedback on each Committee and the preferred timings of these based on the wishes of members of each of those bodies, were set out in the report from paragraph 4.3 onwards.

Whilst the information was there for all members to note, the Monitoring Officer felt it was important to note the result of the survey taken in relation to full Council meetings. The majority of responses received here, requested a start time of 4:00pm and therefore, from September next going forward, the meetings of Council would commence at this time. However, she asked members to note that presently the Civic offices building closed at 6:30pm.

Therefore, when the Council commenced with hybrid meetings, there may be a requirement to keep the building open later than 6:30pm, should this be required.

The revised programme of meetings from September 2022 was detailed for members at Appendix 2. There was one proposed change to the schedule  in relation to Subject O&S Committee 1, which due to a clash with another Council appointment on the 12 September 2022 would now commence at 2:30pm and that had been agreed following the approval of the Chairperson of this committee.

RESOLVED:                                     That Council:

a)            Noted the outcome of the timings of meetings survey as detailed in Appendix 1 of the report;

b)            Approved the proposed Programme of Meetings from September 2022 as shown in Appendix 2, which has been compiled from the survey and developed using the rationale as outlined in this report.