Council meetings: Public Participation

Residents are welcome to attend our public meetings, register to speak and ask questions, submit a petition or contribute to the scrutiny function of the Council. The different ways that residents can get involved in meetings of the Council are outlined below, including the deadlines for doing so.

Residents wishing to attend a meeting

Residents are encouraged and welcome to attend our various different meetings held in public, usually held at the Town Hall, Maidenhead or at York House, Windsor. Details of all of these meetings, including agendas, minutes, memberships, times and locations, can be found via the council's list of committees. Agendas are published five clear working days before the day of the meeting, with the opportunity to speak being available at the majority of our meetings. The deadlines to register to speak at each of these can be found below:

• Cabinet: Midday on the day of the meeting.
• Development Management Committees: Midday, two working days prior to the meeting.
• Overview and Scrutiny Panels: 5pm, two working days prior to the meeting.
• All other applicable meetings: 5pm, two working days prior to the meeting.

Once a meeting agenda has been published, please contact democratic.services@rbwm.gov.uk prior to the above deadlines, if you wish to register to speak. Speakers are given three minutes to address the meeting and are able to ask questions or make statements. Part 7F of the Council’s Constitution outlines this process in further detail.

Submitting a public question to Council 

Any person who lives, works, studies or owns property within the borough, may ask questions at any ordinary meetings of the council by submitting your questions in advance to democratic.services@rbwm.gov.uk. The deadline for this can be found below:

• Council: Midday, seven clear working days prior to the meeting. For example if the meeting was on Tuesday 9 September, the deadline would be midday on Thursday 28 August. 

When submitting a question, this must include the following:

• Your name.
• Your address.
• The name of the relevant Cabinet Member that you request to address the question.

Things to look out for when submitting a question:

• Submitted questions must not exceed a 60 word limit.
• A maximum of two questions may be asked per person.
• Questions may only be asked at extraordinary meetings, if related specifically to the agenda item due to be discussed.
• At the yearly budget meeting, only questions relating directly to the budget may be submitted. 

Prior to the meeting, responses to all submitted questions will be published online and sent directly to the questioner no later than 5pm, the working day prior to the meeting.

At the meeting, if you so wish, one minute will be given to ask a supplementary question, which can be done either in-person or remotely. A period of 30 minutes will be allocated for all questions to be dealt with. 

Further details on this process can be found within Part 2 of the Council's Constitution.

Submitting a petition to Council 

Residents of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead may ask a Councillor to submit a petition to any ordinary meeting of the council on their behalf, which should be signed by at least 25 residents. 

If the petition is referred to Cabinet or another relevant committee, then the lead petitioner would be invited to attend the meeting or a future council meeting, if it receives over 1,000 signatures. Lead petitioners are given 5 minutes to address the relevant committee.

Further details on how to present a petition are contained within the Petitions' Protocol, located in Part 7G of the Council's Constitution.

Getting involved with an Overview and Scrutiny Panel

Residents play a key role in ensuring that the panels consider matters of local concern. This is enabled through either registering to speak at a meeting or via a scrutiny topic suggestion.

Scrutiny can often undertake independent reviews of matters relating to the council or partner organisations, with members of the public and other groups encouraged to submit evidence to Overview and Scrutiny Panel meetings. This gives Councillors on the Panel a chance to discuss issues raised by the public with Cabinet Members and key senior officers.

Residents can also submit topic suggestions for potential consideration at a future Panel meeting. This helps scrutiny to understand issues that are important to the local community to help identify areas of potential improvement. All suggestions will be considered by Scrutiny Officer, and we'll get back to you and let you know whether your request has been accepted, or if there is an alternative course of action that would address your concern. If the suggestion is suitable, then it will be referred to one of our three panels; Corporate, Place or Adults, Children and Health for consideration to be added to the work programme.

Further information on the scrutiny function and how to get involved, please view our How to get involved in Overview and Scrutiny webpage.