We are committed to you having a say on our services and decisions.
There are many ways you can get involved, attending community meetings and public events and responding to public consultations.
There are some Council meetings that you can attend and participate by asking a question, or making representations, or presenting a petition.
The Public Participation Scheme explains how to do this.
There is a different public participation scheme for planning committee meetings.
The Public Participation Scheme
The Public Participation Scheme applies to the following meetings:
- Council Cabinet
- Cabinet Highways & Transport Strategic Board
- Locality Boards
- Licensing Committee
- Licensing Regulatory Committee
Find dates and locations of council meetings.
Council meetings are public meetings and if you participate at a meeting, your name and a summary of your participation will be included in the minutes of the meeting.
You may be filmed under the law permitting filming at meetings of the Council.
Arrangements for meetings
The public participation arrangements are the same for each of the meeting.
If you wish to participate in the meetings you can:
- ask a question
- make a statement
- present a petition
on any matter for which the Council has responsibility.
You don't have to attend the meeting. If you don't attend, the meeting will consider your question, statement or petition and you will receive a written response after the meeting.
Once you have submitted your question, petition or statement, the Monitoring Officer will decide which body to refer it to.
If your question, petition or statement is outside the remit of the meetings you will receive a written response from the Council.
The time set aside for public participation is normally limited to 30 minutes per meeting. This period may be extended in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Chair.
We treat all participants in meetings with respect and expects the same standards of conduct from everyone in its meetings.
Submitting questions, statements, and petitions
Questions, statements, and petitions can be submitted by:
- contacting the Committee Services Support Officer for the meeting you want to attend:
- from the list of committees select the committee you want to attend
- the contact details for the Support Officer are at the bottom of the meeting page
- post (mark your envelope 'Public Participation') to The Monitoring Officer at South Lakeland House, Kendal LA9 4DH
Question or statement must be received in writing (including email) by us at least three clear working days before the day of the meeting (not including the day of the meeting). For example, if the meeting is on Tuesday requests must be received by 11.59 pm on the previous Wednesday.
Petitions can be sent the same way, but we will need to receive them nine clear working days before the committee meeting.
Our Monitoring Officer will reject questions, statements or petitions which are not submitted in writing, within the time limit.
You will be notified if your question, statement, or petition is rejected for these reasons and may re-submit, complying with the requirements in the scheme, provided your submission is not excluded.
Attending a meeting
If you want to attend the meeting to which you have submitted your question, statement or petition, please let us know you when you submit it.
You will be contacted before the meeting by a Council officer to confirm your attendance and inform you of the date of the meeting, venue and what time to attend.
On the day of the meeting, we ask that you arrive in plenty of time. Public participation takes place early on in the meeting.
If you cannot attend the meeting, you may ask someone else to attend on your behalf. Please let us know us in advance of the meeting who you have asked to attend on your behalf.
When it is your turn to speak you will have a few minutes to introduce yourself and then ask your question, make your statement, or present your petition.
You may be asked follow-up questions by members attending the meeting.
Normally five minutes is allowed for each speaker.
You will then receive a response from the Chair of the meeting.
If you asked a question, you may ask one supplementary question to clarify any particular point relating to your question. You will normally be allowed up to two minutes for your follow up question.
You will not be able to ask follow-up questions or make further representations if you have made a statement or presented a petition.
Petitions, special considerations
When you submit a petition, the following information should be submitted:
- what the petition is about
- which meeting you want to present the petition to
- What action you (the petitioners) want Westmorland and Furness Council to take
- the name, address and signature of any person supporting the petition (which can be the person's home, work or study address)
- your name and contact details (the person submitting the petition)
All petitions must be submitted in writing. If you submit a petition in writing your petition will be acknowledged within two working days, with confirmation of what we will do with the petition and when you can expect a response.
Our response will depend on what the petition is about and how many people have signed the petition.
Before you submit a petition you should contact your local elected member to see if the we are already acting on your concerns and to ensure that we are the most appropriate body to receive your petition.
All petitions must be received by us within nine clear working days of the meeting.
If your petition has 1,000 signatures or more it will be scheduled for debate at the Council meeting. If this is the case we will let you know the meeting date.
Exclusions
There are some circumstances where we will not accept questions, statements or petitions under the Public Participation Scheme.
The Monitoring Officer may reject a question, statement or petition if it is:
- about any individual (including an individual member of the Cumbria Local Government Pension Scheme) or a member of Council staff
- about matters which are covered by legal or other proceedings
- about a party political matter
- about confidential or exempt information (as defined by statute)
- about a matter where there is already a right of appeal or a complaints process
- vexatious, frivolous, abusive or likely to be defamatory
- is not about a matter for which the Council has responsibility
- a statutory petition (such as one requesting a referendum on having an elected mayor)
- the subject matter of the question, statement or petition is substantially the same as the subject matter of a question, statement or petition considered by a meeting of the full Council, or Cabinet or a Locality Board committee (or in the case of a petition which was not directed towards a meeting, has otherwise received a response) within the last 12 months
The Monitoring Officer's decision is final.