MEETINGS of Maidstone Council need "jazzing up" to get the public more interested and involved, members have decided.

Deep into the third hour of their latest meeting, members of the standards committee began a hot debate on how to make democracy more appealing to the residents of the county town. Before a deserted public gallery, councillors decided to introduce two new meetings into the council's diary and said more time should be spent debating issues in meetings.

The new meetings - on trial for a year - will be public debates where the agenda is selected by the public from a choice of issues, which would be published in the Borough News and on the council's website.

They will be held at the beginning of the year and in the autumn.

Members rejected a suggestion for regular Parliamentary-style question times, where senior councillors could be asked to explain publicly what the council was doing.

Cllr Fred Winckless (Ind) said: "This is an experiment and it will be interesting to see if it works or whether it is the same old people turn up all the time. It is important that the public debate is kept separate from the decision-making process. The council alone must make decisions."

The debates will give the public two opportunities a year to get involved with the council - but the committee said there was still a need to improve debates during normal council sessions.