It has always been the custom

FOR those of us who feel the need to use our democratic right to speak at question time at council meetings, it now seems this council intends to remove certain privileges, at their discretion, from people who wish to speak at these meetings.It has always been the custom in the past, when making your request to give a brief description of the topic you wished to speak about, for instance junction 21 M5, or speed camera and so forth. Now it appears that on August 2, 2007, the standards committee, whoever they may be, is recommending that public speakers provide in advance a full transcript of their proposed address.It is completely unnecessary to implement this change as the chairman of the meeting has overall control. In effect he/she can call anyone to order, be it a member of the public or a wayward councillor. Therefore why the change? Fundamentally it's an erosion of yet more of our liberty and freedom of speech.During the run up to the 2007 local elections I heard no mention by any political party of a constitutional change to veto public debate during meetings open to the public. This has left me confused as to what the Conservative Party really stands for. If these councillors wish to change the constitution they need to resign their seats, call for another election with this change in their manifesto, or stick with the status quo.DEREK A STANLEY - Castle Hill, Banwell