A series of half-hour public and member question time sessions could be arranged in the district to make the council “more transparent.”

The inspiration came from Labour’s Peter Wallace, who looked back to last year’s Dover Town Investment Zone (DTIZ) meeting which allowed free-flowing debate between residents and DDC members.

The showdown at Dover Discovery Centre lasted for three hours.

But the councillor still feels that more could be done to engage with people on a variety of political issues.

The Elms Vale and Maxton representative tabled the motion, which was passed, last Wednesday night.

Finalised details will be brought back to the Whitfield chamber in June.

It called for the authority to: “Develop proposals for introducing 30 minute public and member question time sessions in the meetings of cabinet and council committees, thereby improving participation in the decision-making processes of this council.”

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The request caused a slight stir between members, as some highlighted that the public are able to speak for allocated time slots at Dover town and district meetings.

Speaking about his motion, Cllr Wallace said: “People in the Dover district are really passionate about the area and politics, and they are engaged in every issue whether it’s the state of the roads or what the Prime Minister is doing.

“Yet despite people talking about the issues in the street, online and writing letters to the paper, so few people actually come to the council chamber to tell their councillors face-to-face what they believe in.

'Few people actually come to the council chamber to tell their councillors face-to-face what they believe in.' - Cllr Wallace

“That is why I want the council to make it easier and clearer for the public to come to council meetings. I would like us to offer an open invitation to every member of the public to come and talk to councillors in a new public question time”.

Leader of the Labour party councillors, Mike Eddy said: “We ran a very successful meeting on the DTIZ last year in the Discovery Centre in Dover where people were allowed to ask as many questions as they liked, to the councillors and officers involved in making the decisions, and it was the kind of open and inclusive meeting we should be having at every meeting. This motion should be a good step towards making the council more democratic and in touch with the public.”