West Sussex residents forums axed due to lack of attendance

A one-year trial of seven County Local Forums was declared a failure during a meeting of the full council on Friday (October 14).

The forums – one for each district and borough – replaced the much broader County Local Committees, which were scrapped in 2021 at the cost of two jobs, while saving the council £68,200.

Throughout the year, a total of 298 people attended the seven forums – each of which met three times – asking 216 questions.

Chichester was the best attended over all and Horsham the poorest, while at one Adur meeting there were more council officers in attendance than members of the public.

The loss of the forums will save £76,000, with two more democratic services post being cut.

Sarah Sharp (Green, Chichester South) called the decision ‘a backwards step’, adding that the failure of the forums was the council’s fault for failing to reach people to let them know the opportunity to ask questions existed.

She said: “For us, as democratically elected representatives, to be fully accountable we need to be more open.

“There need to be forums for members of the public to ask questions and hold us to account.

“The risk here is nothing less than loss of democratic debate.”

Labour leader Caroline Baxter called for public question time to be introduced to council meetings – something the West Sussex district and borough councils already do.

She added: “It is important that we explore opportunities for public speaking and engagement seeing as we’ve taken this mechanism out for meeting face-to-face.”

Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Lord described the forums as being a ‘hollowed out’ replacement for the local committees.

She too felt the council needed to do a better job when it came to communicating with residents – especially on the highways issues which fill a large part of each councillor’s inbox.

Others, though, felt there were already plenty of ways for residents to ask questions of their councillors, such as at their various surgeries – if they held one – or via their parish, town and district councils.

Bob Lanzer (Con, Maidenbower & Worth) said the various public consultations conducted by the council had a far greater reach than the forums.

He added: “County Local Forums [have] had their day – they are redundant.”