Town Meeting is for the electors and not the Town Council.

The Annual Town Meeting is an important part of St. Neots life. It is a point in the St. Neots civic calendar when the electors of the Town can come together to talk about St. Neots. (Copy of agenda for last Annual Town Meeting)
I have been to a few Parish and Town Meetings in my life. In my opinion the last St. Neots Town Meeting I went to was weird.

A Town Meeting is just that. Whilst the Town Mayor chairs the Town Meeting and it is organised by the Town Council, it is not a meeting of the Town Council. This is an important distinction. As the Town Councillors are there as electors they should be sitting amongst the electors and not seperate from them. I found the Town Concillors facing the electors just an extension of the "them and us" which pervades the secretative St. Neots Town Council.

We then had the Councillors Statement of Attendance. I've never had this at a Town Meeting. The statement of Attendance would be more appropriate within the Annual Council Meeting.

The Town Mayors' Charity Presentations shouldn't be here. This is appropriate for the Annual Council Meeting. I know some Town/Parish Councils do this but they insist local organisations give a report to the Town Meeting on their activities. These organisations do receive public funds towards their activities. Time we require the same.

I feel there must be a section where our County and District Councillors can put over what is happening in their Councils. This would give the ability of electors to ask questions about these councils activities in St. Neots.

Instead of having a section called the "Town Debate" with the debate already decided. This section should be open to all electors to put motions up for debate. There must be a seperate section for electors to put questions to the Town Mayor about relevent matters to St. Neots.

At the 2009 meeting, I did enjoy the presentation by HDC Planning on the Towns future but this conflicted with the Town Debate which was "The St. Neots Healthcheck". Having gone through the Healthcheck earlier it was rather pointless to have another debate on the same subject.

As couple of Town Meeting agendas and documents from other Town Councils:

The first is: Hythe Town Council Town Meeting Standing Orders. This gives the legal background behind a Town Meeting.

The second is: an agenda from Loughton Town Council.

The third is: an agenda from Folkstone Town Council. This makes use of other organisations.

I feel there is much more the Town Council can do to make this Town Meeting a key event in the civic calendar rather than squeezing it in before the Annual Council Meeting.