A new format for Shellharbour City Council's public participation session worked well on its first day, according to Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba, but not everyone agrees.
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Shellharbour Council has moved its public addresses out of the 6.30pm Tuesday meeting agenda, to 4.30pm earlier the same day.
A change in day to Monday was initially favoured by the majority of councillors, while a proposal to ban children under the age of 18 from speaking was overturned.
The changes come as Wollongong City Council proposes its own restrictions on public addresses, including excluding people from outside the Wollongong LGA.
On Tuesday, just three people addressed Shellharbour councillors at 4.30pm.
None stuck around for the full meeting at 6.30pm, where there were just three people in the public gallery.
Cr Saliba said the early start worked well.
"The people that came made their point," Cr Saliba said.
"There were positives - on one item we had time to go away and gather more information. As a result we deferred the item rather than us making a decision on the night without understanding what was going to happen."
Councillors David Boyle and Helen Stewart did not attend the public access session, but said they watched online before attending the 6.30pm meeting.
Cr Saliba said the fact just three people attended the public access and the meeting was not because of the timing, but because the "business papers were light".
However, Cr Peter Moran said people he had spoken to said the timing was inconvenient.
"I don't think holding public access two hours before the meeting is a good idea," he said.
"I fear public participation will drop off over time as it has done in the past when council has moved the time to earlier in the afternoon.
"If it does drop off then council will be the poorer for it."
aarnold@fairfaxmedia.com.au
