Brightlingsea residents will no longer be able to quiz town councillors at meetings unless they’ve submitted questions in writing.

Up to now, people have been able to ask questions at full meetings of Brightlingsea Town Council (BTC) with no prior notice in a designated part of the meeting.

But following advice from Tendring District Council – which says the new policy is more in line with national local authority procedures – questions will have to be sent in by 5pm the day before the meeting.

BTC says this will allow councillors to “provide more thoughtful and thorough answers rather than being limited by the immediate nature of live questioning” and will avoid answers being deferred to a future meeting.

The person submitting the question can still attend the meeting and read out their query. There’ll be a three minute time limit, and supplementary questions will only be allowed at the discretion of the meeting’s chairman. If the questioner is unable to attend the meeting, the question and answer will still be read out.