RECENTLY I attended a Worcester City Council meeting and I was surprised one particular topic dominated the agenda.

As regular readers of this column will know Brexit, including the topic of a People’s Vote second referendum, is often something I like to comment on so you may have thought a motion on the issue would have been of interest to me.

The Guildhall debate on the motion, calling for the authority to support another referendum and urging the city's MP to back the People’s Vote in the event of a no deal, took over an hour - far longer than anything else on the agenda. At times it became heated, with one councillor Chris Mitchell calling it ludicrous. And in the public gallery, full of People’s Vote supporters, the chairman had to tell them to keep quiet as they applauded and heckled comments.

Throughout all this I was just baffled. All I could think was what was the point? This was a classic case of national politics creeping into a place they don’t belong.

I have some sympathy for the protestors. I voted remain and at one point even supported a People’s Vote, but believe that time has now passed.

But that isn’t the key issue here - my argument is national issues have no place at council meetings.

My understanding of the thought-process behind this motion is by raising the issue at a local level, at town halls across the UK, pressure builds and this could lead to a second referendum.

But is this really the reality? In all my years of covering council meetings, both here and in Bromsgrove, I have seen so many similar attempts to use an authority to persuade a government to change their policy on a national issue. But it all ends up being a complete waste of everyone's time.

Ask yourself would MPs really change their views based on a debate in a town hall that they didn't attend. And ultimately it is the Prime Minister who will have the final say anyway, so would Theresa May really change her mind if a few councils say she should?

The bottom line is, it's crucial time wasted. After a period when there has been a reduction in local authority funding, that has led to cuts, people rightly should expect the focus to be entirely on local issues at these meetings. Quite simply, councillors should concentrate on bins, not Brexit.