OPEN format public meetings arranged by Keighley Town Council to give parishioners a chance to have their say will continue, despite concerns over poor attendance.

Members of the town council debated whether to carry on with these meetings, which were originally set up to encourage public participation outside of the set agendas which govern the town council's own regular meetings.

Cllr Julie Adams said: "Even if only one member of the public turns up that is reason enough to have these open meetings.

"Sometimes they do attract a lot of people who do ask a lot of questions.

"We should carry on with the meetings. They are a good opportunity for Keighley people to meet councillors and talk about what they think is good or bad."

Keighley town mayor Cllr Mohammed Nazam said he feared the meetings were not being advertised well enough.

Cllr Martin Walker warned: "People who might otherwise come to the meetings aren't able to attend the ones in the daytime because they are working.

"I went to two of these meetings last year as a member of the public myself, and in both cases the public there were outnumbered by councillors."

Cllr Kaneez Akthar said: "Public meetings are one way in which people can hold us to account. For me they're extremely important.

"We need to start thinking about going out to the public instead of expecting them to come to us. Could we not instead go from ward to ward?"

Cllr Anayat Mohammed said the meetings had been well attended when they were first established, but people had then "drifted away".

He suggested people could be attracted back by highlighting particular topics for discussion at the meetings which would be most likely to generate public interest.

The town council agreed to pass the matter onto its own policies and governance committee to decide how to market the public meetings more effectively.