The Annual Meeting is the one at which the full council elects the Chair, Vice-Chair and Leader for the coming year who will then announce Cabinet appointments.

The proposed venue is the Ocean in Exmouth which has been used for recent “in person” council meetings.

Why not use another enduring legacy, the Tory Flagship Council Office in Honiton with its narrow dysfunctional council chamber? 

Does this extract from Tim Todd’s FOI, June 2019, give us a clue?

Along with a fair number of members of the public, I attended the first council meeting under the new intake of councillors in May. Even arriving early I found that there was no room to accommodate me and a number of other members of the public, we had to use a less than satisfactory gallery with a restricted view of the participants. We also had to put up with broadcast information and missed out on all that was said when speakers forgot to use the microphones. Being quite separate from councillors and others, we were not readily able to have conversations with others on matters that may have been relevant and could have been raised by our representatives.

I gather from some in the small chamber downstairs, and from social media, that many were less than impressed and some felt the design and construction did not give due weight to public engagement in council matters in their public meetings, that the council has failed in its duty to provide adequate facilities or encourage participation.

Annual Council meeting 24 May 6.00 pm

The agenda will be displayed in the week before the meeting

Proposed venue: Ocean Suite, Ocean, Queen’s Drive, Exmouth, EX8 2AY

The First Cabinet meeting 7 June

The agenda will be displayed in the week before the meeting

Proposed venue: Council Chamber, Blackdown House, Honiton