Former councillor Gordon Crisp was the first to rise in the public gallery to put a question to council but was asked by mayor Graeme Hanger to resume his seat.

Cr Hanger then told the public gallery that candidates who had nominated for next month’s local government election would not be allowed to speak from the public gallery.

The ruling did not apply to sitting councillors who are seeking re-election.

Mr Crisp asked the mayor to cite the section of the Local Government Act he was applying in making the gag order and was told it was a standard practice of Bathurst Regional Council in the lead-up to an election.

Mr Crisp said he could not recall such a ruling being made previously and a Western Advocate check of the minutes of the last meeting before the 2012 election revealed Mr Crisp spoke from the public gallery on that occasion despite also contesting that election.

General manager David Sherley said there was a need to “maintain community confidence” in the integrity of council in the lead-up to an election.

“Public question time is for members of the community to raise questions to council and is not an opportunity for nominated candidates to use as an election platform,” Mr Sherley said.

“The representation that candidates make during public question time could be seen to be electoral matter.

“This advice is consistent with the advice I provided during the July meeting. The councillors at the meeting are still elected representatives and were attending to the business of the day.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Local Government said councils set the rules surrounding their own public question time.

“While the Office of Local Government believes that providing some form of public participation in council meetings is good practice, there is no automatic right under local government legislation for public participation in council meetings,” the spokesperson said.

“It is a matter for individual councils to determine whether to provide for public participation and the rules under which it is to occur.

“This includes deciding if and when members of the public are allowed to speak, and any limitation on the number of speakers or time for speech.”

Bob Triming was another candidate who had planned to speak at the meeting.

“I wanted to raise the issue of a lack of footpaths near the Mitre and Keppel street development and I was also going to speak about the new signage policy, where I was the only person to make a submission,” he said.

“I would not have had a problem if everyone was restricted to speaking only on issues that were on the agenda that night.”

Mr Crisp said he had referred last week’s meeting to ICAC.