You can go to most Council and committee meetings unless sensitive or confidential information is being discussed.

Papers and the agenda for the meetings are available online before the meeting.

Find a meeting False

Are you concerned about a Council service or an issue that affects local people? You can organise a petition and hand it to the Council to get your message across. You can also speak and present your petition to all the councillors at a Council meeting.

To find out how to send in a petition visit the Submit a petition page.

Public question time sessions are held at Council meetings. You can ask a question or make a statement on Council services (except planning or licensing applications).

You need to send us your question or statement 11 working days before the meeting. At the meeting you will have five minutes to outline your question or statement. To find out how to submit a question or statement please contact us.

If you are in support of or against a planning application, you can speak at meetings where the application will be decided (usually the Development Management Committee).  Find out how you can make a representation and speak at meetings on planning applications on the Development Management Committee page.

You can speak on licence applications or pavement café permits.  

Have your say on issues that are under scrutiny.  To find out more visit Overview and Scrutiny page

You can find out what decisions are going to be made and when by looking at agendas, minutes and reports for a meeting and the Executive  Forward Plan False.

Find a meeting False

Community Partnerships  Opens in a new window False are voluntary groups of people based on each ward in Torbay. They are for people who live or work in the area to discuss issues of local concern.  Through the partnerships, you can understand and influence the way in which services are provided in your area.  

There are people who are elected to represent you in government locally (Councillors), nationally (Members of Parliament) and in Europe (Members of European Parliament).

• Councillors False
• MEPs for the South West False
• MPs for Torbay and Totnes False

Have you ever thought about becoming a councillor?

If you care about the area that you live or work in and the issues facing local people, you could be a councillor.

Whatever needs changing in your community, you could be just the person to change it by becoming a local councillor. No other role gives you a chance to make such a huge difference to quality of life for people in your local area.

Visit the Become a councillor page for more information.