Hold at least one council meeting a month in a pub. Yes really.

Went to a council meeting last week. They held it in a community centre on the edge of town at 2 in the afternoon on a wednesday. Eleven people attended. Four of them were the council. Two were press. Three were retired. One was me. One was a bloke who had wandered in thinking it was a carpet bowls club.

Now before anyone says "thats democracy for you mate", I want you to consider something. On a friday night our local has thirty people in it, all of whom have opinions, and most of whom have more to say about bin collections than the actual councillor who is technically responsible for bin collections.

The problem isnt that people dont care about local issues. The problem is that local government conducts itself in rooms nobody wants to be in, at times nobody is free, in a format that makes even interesting topics feel like wading through porridge.

Here is the proposal. Every month, hold at least one council meeting in an actual public space where people actually are. A pub function room. A community hall on a saturday morning. The back of a cafe. Not the main council business, fine, keep that official. But a properly warned and minuted "surgery" type meeting where councillors have to sit there with a pint and explain their decisions to whoever shows up.

Pushback will be "but its unprofessional" and "but the decisions need to be formal". Grand. Those points are noted. The decisions are currently being made by eleven people in a community centre at 2pm on a wednesday and nobody else has any idea what they are. I think unprofessional is a risk worth taking.

Geoff says he would attend any meeting that served beer. I believe him. I suspect he isnt the only one.