I attended the Kenilworth Town Council meeting on Thursday evening, something I do only occasionally - partly because their meetings sometimes clash with other commitments, but also because curiously I have no real role to perform there anyway.

When I attend meetings of the parish council that covers part of my electoral division - i.e. Burton Green and the University - I have a regular slot on the agenda and the opportunity to speak and contribute on any item under discussion. At town council meetings, however, I am effectively a member of the public. This can be frustrating when the town council is discussing a subject that I know a lot about, and where a shortage of real facts is apparent!

The problem is that county and district councillors are usually also town councillors, and the town council doesn’t really know how to interface with them if (like me) they are not. This issue is not unique to Kenilworth - county councillor colleagues from other towns in Warwickshire tell me they experience similar issues.

I think there’s often too much formality surrounding council proceedings anyway. At our Area Committee meetings at the County Council we’ve managed to strip away most of this, to good effect I think, and made ourselves more accessible to the general public as a result.