PLANS to scrap 'off the cuff' public speaking at council meetings in Rossendale are set to be ditched.

Officials at Rossendale Borough Council wanted to introduce a new system that meant all public questions would have to be submitted in writing at least three days before a meeting.

Under current rules, the public can turn up on the night of a meeting to speak on all items which appear on an agenda.

The Audit Committee put forward new recommendations to help improve the way councillors reply to questions.

But opposition councillors branded the move 'Draconian' and urged councillors at an executive committee meeting to vote against the proposals.

Council leader Peter Steen said that under the new system people would get better responses on the night of a meeting.

But the argument fell at the first hurdle when council leader Peter Steen couldn't reply to a question submitted three days before the executive committee because the answer was 'too complex'.

Mark Weston, director of corporate support, said: "The public's right to speak on every item on the agenda would be curtailed under the proposals. Public Question Time will be the public's right to speak on items. The Audit Committee said questions should be submitted three clear working days before a committee."

David Hancock, leader of the Labour Group, said: "We should be encouraging people to come to council meetings to comment on agenda items that affect them, rather than taking a backwards step.

"It's not fair to ask the public to contact us three days before a meeting as the agendas are not circulated until five days before a meeting, which would only give them two days, providing they had seen an agenda in the first place, to ask a question.

"Most council staff would not even know what's going to be on a meeting's agenda, so it's totally unfair to expect that the public will.

"I feel very strongly about this. We need to keep it simple for the public so they can get involved with the council, but what we would be doing here is putting extra hurdles in their way."

Councillors amended the recommendations to retain public speaking and to increase the level of advertisement of meetings.

The proposal is set to be ratified at Rossendale's full council meeting on November 24.