'Outdated' Hartlepool community forums 'abused' by public and councillors, meeting hears

The council holds ‘North and Coastal’ and ‘South and Central’ Community Forums quarterly, both held in the town’s Civic Centre on the same day, with one at 10.30am and the other 1pm.

Councillors had previously discussed scrapping the ‘outdated’ community forums system.

However at the latest Hartlepool Borough Council Constitution Committee councillors outlined planned for the future of the forums, which will see them continue in a reduced and more targeted form.

Three joint community forums, for all areas of the town, will be held during the next municipal year to tie in with the council’s wider ‘Your Say, Our Future’ approach.

One will be held during June/July looking at the Community Safety Plan for 2020-23, one held in autumn 2020 focusing on the budget, and one in February/March 2021 looking at Health and Wellbeing Board matters.

The community forums would be held in line with other consultation methods over the topics, including drop in events and online and paper-based surveys.

Council leader Coun Shane Moore said the forums on each different topic will have more of a ‘purpose’ than the old system.

He said: “Community forums in the new form must have a purpose, they can’t just carry on as they have been.”

Coun Marjorie James said currently both residents and councillors hold off reporting problems and instead bring them to community forums, which needs to change.

She said: “Some members think they have to hold on to resident issues until the forum, that’s really not what it’s for, members should be dealing with the problem they are aware of, not holding it to share it with the world.

“They have been abused both by some sections of the public and members themselves.”

However councillors did note it would cause a problem for those who attend if they removed the forums entirely.

Coun Dave Hunter said: “They aren’t the most productive meetings but they are an opportunity for members of the public to make their voices heard.”

The proposals will now be referred to the next full meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council for approval.