A war of words has consumed a local council meeting over a proposed rule change, resulting in shouts of "disgusting" at the conclusion of the gathering.
Nuneaton and Bedworth councillors were asked last week to decide on how full council meetings were staged and whether questions should be moved from the start to the end.
If implemented, the move would allow for 45 minutes of questions.
However, meetings are only scheduled to 9pm, meaning standing orders would have to be lifted if it looked like the session would run over time.
Concerns were raised over whether standing orders would in fact be lifted and if they weren't, question time would be cut short.
Conservative group leader Councillor Kris Wilson told CoventryLive the move was "undemocratic".
"What happens if members want to ask questions that last longer than 45 minutes?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, from my experience of this, almost exactly the same change was made just a number of years ago."
Council meeting ends with shouts of 'disgusting' over 'undemocratic' change to rulesWilson said "unfortunately" there were occasions when questions were cut short and "all we got was a written reply".
"At the end of the day, we are elected members and I have just as much right to raise a question and am entitled to represent residents," Wilson said.
"Why should we allow an arbitrary time limit of 45 minutes to deny me the right to raise something of importance to my residents or the borough - I don't think that's right."
In a rare sign of bipartisanship, Green Party Group Leader, councillor Michele Kondakor, also held fears of questions being timed out.
A vote on whether to change question time from the start of council meetings to the end was defeated.
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She told the meeting, "I will also be voting against it", adding it would be "very bad for democracy".
"We have questions from members of the public, and it naturally should follow that you have members' questions," Kondakor said.
She also issued a warning that community members attending the meetings may not stay until the end of the meetings.
"If [councillor questions] is at the end of the meeting, chances are [members of the public] won't have sat through the whole lot," Kondakor said.
"So I think it is undemocratic to move [the questions]."
According to councillor Caroline Phillips, she raised the proposed change amid safety fears for female councillors who have had to leave meetings as late as 11pm.
"I brought this forward as a safeguarding issue for female councillors, a few years back, the meetings went on," she said.
"One of our female councillors was followed home by someone in the public gallery, she was on her own, her husband wasn't at home and she was on her own."
Phillips claimed the proposal would enable "women to be able to participate in democracy".
"I hear a lot of men wanting to take part in democracy - where are women's voices?" she said.
Phillips continued, saying the business of the council was more "priority" than the questions, which was echoed by councillor Christian Smith, who claimed they were a "bit of theatre".
Councillor Jack Bonner said Phillips had "made a very passionate case to me", citing 10 of the 38 councillors were women.
"It is not cynical, we did not bring this forward with cynical intentions, it was about hearing voices for women," Bonner said.
As a vote on the change was ultimately lost and announced, Phillips was heard shouting "disgusting".
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