Abergele...The Public Raise Concerns At Being Excluded From Council Meeting!

This is very odd as to why this has happened, if it is a totally private meeting fair enough, but it sounds like this was not.

I think the council needs to open up a bit more as this does not help the public to trust them, that is clear in the comments below the article.

.I attended a public meeting today at the Town Hall - upon arriving, was told that the public was excluded from entering that meeting due to ‘confidential matters’ being discussed, this is fine and rightful so…

What 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 is that members of the public were then excluded from entering the chamber after this item had been completed - therefore being excluded from the actual important parts of the meeting - by the leader of the council himself, the key one being ‘𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 - 𝘛𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘭”

How can ‘public participation’ happen, when the public are being withheld from meetings by those put in power by the public - Abergele needs transparency, these meetings been concluded behind closed doors needs to 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽!

From....https://www.facebook.com/groups/abergele.noticeboard/per

malink/2481579481990133/

And some of these comments followed the post...

Write a comment…

• Caroline Jones

  Surely the public part should have been conducted before the private business that way the public could have left and they could have carried on

  

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  • 12 h
• Charles Mccoubrey

  The Public participation is a standing agenda item where members of the public request to address the council on any matter. They have to notify the council in advance. As there had not been any requests made to the council there was nothing to discuss on this item. There were a number of confidential items on the agenda this evening and there are clear and strict guidelines as to what is classed as confidential. You were invited in to listen to all non confidential items.

  

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  • 13 h
  • Aaran Lennox

    Author

    Top contributor

    Charles Mccoubrey I raised my concerns with Ruth, as stated in a previous comment - Agenda item 7, 8 and 9 were concluded without the public being permitted into the room…

    The issue isn’t the questions part as I had no questions to ask but in general, the way the meeting was conducted was wrong, in my opinion.
  • Well....somebody voted them in....you all know what to do next time.

    

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    • 13 h

    • Linda Colegate

      Peter Latham there are some councillors who don't get voted on by the public.

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      • 11 h
    • Peter Latham

      Linda Colegate then it is more so...that they should NOT be having a confidential meet....of what purposes ...does this involve any opinions the public have in this confidential meeting. Or is this just for their own good . Nobody will know.

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      • 11 h
      • Linda Colegate

        Peter Latham I agree council meetings should be more public after all we pay their wages.
      • Glenda Tobin

        

        I recently submitted a freedom of information request about a meeting held behind closed doors that was actually relevant to the public. They said they couldn't provide me with the information as I wasn't being specific enough in my request. I wanted the minutes of what should have been a public meeting how much more specific could I be? Something very secretive about our current representatives. Why I wonder.
      • James MacBain

        There is no such thing as confidential matters when the council is involved. These so called councilors work for us so we have every right to know exactly what is going on. It's dodgy so called confidential meetings that have got us all in this mess, especially in Conwy. Councillors conducting secret covert meetings on how to waste our money.
      • • Matt Doobie

          I fear a similar situation at Towyn and Kinmel Bay with the new planning guidance they want to get adopted for the area. Wholly unacceptable

          

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        • Neil Evans

          Roll on the revolution!!

          

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        • David Metcalfe

          

          May have a few things to hide wouldn’t trust them at all

          

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          • 13 h
        • Dorothy Jackson

          Interesting.
        • Andrew Maycock

          We need rid of these third rate self serving and self promoting incompetent bunch

          It takes the total of 25 council tax of band E housed just to cover the "salary" of the council leader

          Many do not serve through a duty of public service but for the grossly inflated allowances they receive