Issue - meetings
Delegated Authority to deal with inquorate Parish Council
Meeting: 05/07/2021 - Cabinet (Item 23)
23 Inquorate Parish Councils - Procedure for Appointing Temporary Members 
PDF 63 KB
Purpose
The adoption of this Procedure will ensure that Cotswold District Council can respond promptly to situations where Town or Parish Councils become inquorate and enable this tier of local government to continue to function effectively.
Recommendation
Adopt the procedure set out in Annex A for making appointments to inquorate Town and Parish Councils under section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972.
Additional documents:
- Item 11 - Annex A -Procedure for making temp appointments to T&P Councils, item 23
PDF 336 KB
- Webcast for Inquorate Parish Councils - Procedure for Appointing Temporary Members
Minutes:
The Committee received a report from the Monitoring Officer which asked Members to consider adopting a procedure to ensure that the Council could promptly respond to situations where Town and Parish Councils became inquorate and would enable them to continue to work effectively.
The report advised that explained that a Town or Parish Council had to be quorate in order to operate and make decisions. A quorum was defined as one third of the Council’s membership but no less than three.
The report recommended that moving forwards these approvals be delegated to senior officers, in conjunction with the political group leaders to enable Town or Parish Council members to be appointed promptly.
An alternative option was that Cabinet could choose to retain the decision making power on this however, due to the frequency of Cabinet meetings this could cause delay for Town and Parish Councils. It was felt that the appointment of temporary members could be delegated to officers in consultation with Group Leaders to ensure member involvement in the process.
The Monitoring Officer introduced the report and provided some background as to the impact that being inquorate could have on a Parish Council. It was noted that this had recently occurred at Poulton Parish Council leaving them unable to function.
Members raised a number of queries in relation to the practicalities of the process and the Monitoring Officer addressed their concerns. The Monitoring Officer agreed to circulate the data available in terms of the proportion of town and parish councillors that were co-opted/elected.
It was therefore proposed and duly seconded that the recommendations be approved.
Having considered the report, and having heard from the Members present, Cabinet
Resolved that the procedure set out in Annex A for making appointments to inquorate Town and Parish Councils under section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972, is adopted.
Record of Voting - for 8, against 0, abstention 0, absent 0.