Call to open up debate (From Stroud News and Journal)

Call to open up debate

STROUD District Council's leader has admitted that more business needs to be dealt with in public after debates on several key issues were heard behind closed doors.

At the full council meeting on Thursday night, press and public were not allowed to sit in on discussions over releasing the covenant on land at Bonds Mill, Stroud's cinema and the temporary bus station, Far Hill car park and transfer of land from SDC to Stroud Town Council for its pocket parks.

Under local government legislation the public can be excluded if sensitive material is to be discussed.

A majority of councillors voted to exclude press and public on Thursday.

But many Labour and Green councillors believed much of the business could have been conducted in public.

Cllr John Marjoram (Green, Trinity) called the situation 'a shambles.'

"Two or three of those items could have been discussed in the open," he said.

Cllr John Stephenson-Oliver (Con, Painswick) indicated he would consider opening up debate, as long as members knew what they could and could not discuss.

"I would like to open it up more," he told the News & Journal.

"But people have to behave properly."