[Ed Hammond]

I do think that full council is underused, and the role it plays - and has the potential to play - is ignored.

There is nothing more depressing than attending a meeting of full council where all the councillors spend two hours conducting stilted debates with each other which are entirely party political in nature, watched by precisely no-one, with the public gallery being completely empty.

Full council has the potential to be used as a much more high-profile forum for public debate. The public tend to be spectators at formal meetings, but there's no real why procedure rules can't be changed to encourage public involvement and participation in an event as formal as full council. By doing so, full council could play a more prominent role in policy-making.

I really like the idea of scrutiny pre-appointment hearings, but the experience of their use in Parliament has been quite mixed!