WITNEY town councillors decided on Monday night not to hold a meeting behind closed doors.

The special public halls committee meeting was originally expected to be closed to the press and public but councillors decided not to go ahead.

The move came after the Witney Gazette last week criticised the council for holding two recent meetings in private.

Monday’s meeting again discussed a significant issue for the town; how to pay for the Corn Exchange’s refurbishment.

As we said last week, the council’s proceedings should be open to all as much as possible and we are pleased that they decided to do so this week.

We understand that some matters are genuinely confidential, such as the discussion of contracts or the salaries of staff. In these cases, closing the meeting is legitimate.

But Monday proved that the bulk of a meeting can take place in public and, if necessary, it can then be closed briefly to talk about a sensitive point before the meeting is reopened.

This should be the norm, rather than a blanket ban on an entire meeting.

However, the council still has some way to go and we agree with Witney resident Owen Edwards, who spoke on Monday, that agenda papers need to be released before meetings.

At the moment only the front sheet is available on the council’s website before meetings, which gives very little information about what is due to be discussed.

Other councils, including West Oxfordshire District Council, publish all the paperwork before meetings.

We believe the town council should follow suit, so that members of the public can understand the background and be involved in its decisions.