Members of the public are welcome to attend all council and committee meetings unless there is a reason to consider some items ‘in committee’. If you wish to speak at a meeting, please contact the Governance Team to make prior arrangements with Council.
Council meetings are held once a month, usually on a Wednesday, commencing at 10.30am in the Council Chamber, 200 Tuam Street, Christchurch. View the dates of Council meetings.
Time is set aside at the beginning of each meeting for members of the public to address the Council or committee. These usually take three forms.
Public forum – an individual or group speaking to a matter not necessarily on the Council meeting agenda
Deputation – an individual or group speaking to a matter on the Council meeting agenda
Petition – an individual or group presenting to the Council a petition signed by 20 or more people.
Requests to speak / Speaker guidelines
Requests to speak must be made at least two working days before the meeting. If you would like to attend the meeting via an audio or audiovisual link, please contact us as early as you can so we can arrange the technology.
Except with the approval of the Chair, not more than two members of a deputation may address the meeting. Speakers may speak for up to 10 minutes. If there are two speakers on a topic 10 minutes in total is available for both speakers.
Speakers are welcome to bring written material to the meeting in support of their topic. If you have a PowerPoint presentation, we will need at least one clear day before the meeting to load it into the system for live streaming. Our Council meetings are recorded and can be viewed on our YouTube playlist(external link).
After the public forum/deputation or petition is presented, no debate or decisions will be made at the meeting on issues raised, unless related to items already on the agenda.
Responses to matters raised
Councillors can ask questions of clarification but will not debate the issues raised. The matters raised may be referred to the Chief Executive for further investigation. A reply will be provided as soon as possible.
The Chairperson has the discretion to decline to hear a speaker or to terminate a presentation at any time if:
- A speaker is representing views presented by an earlier speaker at the same public forum.
- The speaker is criticising elected members and/or staff.
- The speaker is being repetitious, disrespectful or offensive.
- The speaker has previously spoken on the same issue.
- The matter is subject to legal proceedings; and/or
- The matter is subject to a hearing, including the hearing of submissions where the local authority sits in a quasi-judicial capacity.
Contact us
For more information and requests to speak, please contact Governance Services at governance@ecan.govt.nz.