Joint North and Coastal AND South and Central neighbourhood forums.

[whatabouthisthen]

These are usually held singly, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

On Thursday, March 6th a joint forum instead is being held in the Civic, starting at 5 pm and scheduled to close at 9 pm.

This is probably in response to complaints that working people cannot attend during the working day.

All you working people PLEASE NOTE. If you do not attend then you will probably not be given the chance again. The Cllrs have always said that they get better attendance at meetings during the day than they do during the evening. Consider that this is a trap. Poor attendance will almost certainly give the the Council the excuse not to hold any Committee meeting in the evening. If this is better attended than normal, then they will not be able to use the poor attendance excuse when other Committees are requested to be held in the evening. It is up to you. I strongly urge you to attend for at least some of the time.

[steveL]

There is little point in changing times unless you properly publicise the event. To do one and not the other is an approach deliberately design to get lower attendance.

Meetings are better attended during the day because people employed in community organisations and enterprises use the meetings as an excuse to get out of work. Ask the same people to give up their own time on an evening and they bawk at the idea.

[whatabouthisthen]

It has been publicised in the Mail, on  HBC website and in the latest issue of Heartbeat. What more can they do?

I agree with your second comment but I believe that you were one of the ones complaining about meetings not being accessible to working people in the private sector because of the hours. Now that there is a meeting outside of the working day, which is open from 5 till 9 pm, the Council has given you what you wanted. There will be plenty of officers and Cllrs there who will be giving up their free time. If you and others don't attend then don't be surprised if it never happens again.

As I said previously, it is up to you guys whether to attend or not. I suspect it could well be a trap so don't spring it and attend.

I don't agree very often with this administration but, on this occasion, they have given you what you, Dave and others have asked for.

[whatabouthisthen]

Latest info suggests this might be an extraordinary meeting on the environment.

There are scheduled neighbourhood meetings on Wednesday 2nd April.

Perhaps my generosity towards the Council is mis-placed.

Maybe the PHF Cllrs can enlighten us?