Meetings Between Parish Councillors

Background Paper – Agenda 24th January 2011

Meetings Between Parish Councillors

Information received from Trisha Carter (Chief Executive of LALC), via Graham Watts, Democratic Services Manager at Boston Borough Council

From Graham Watts:

Hi Steve,

I can't get hold of my colleague who I asked to deal with your query so
I took the liberty of speaking directly to Trisha Carter who is the
newly appointed CX of the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils.

Trisha was quite clear that there is nothing within any legislation
that prevents Parish Councils (or any level of Local Authority) to hold
informal meetings, as long as no decisions made at those meetings are
published as official decisions of the body. She went on to say that it
was actually good practice for Councillors to meet informally to discuss
items prior to public meetings so that any mis-understandings etc can be
ironed out before public consideration is undertaken and a decision is
made. Trisha confirmed that numerous Parish Councils throughout
Lincolnshire operate in this manner.

I hope this helps. If you have any further queries I am sure Trisha
would be happy to give you advice. Her number is 01673 866596.

Regards
Graham

(December 2010)

Clarifications sought in 2007

E-mail to Eleanor Hoggart – Monitoring Officer and Solicitor to ELDC from Steve Lumb

Wednesday July 25th 2007

With the start of the new Parish Council we decided things needed to be done in a more structured way, with the Council following a work plan, planning its agenda and not simply turning up and meeting each other every 2 months in front of 30 parishioners to go through an agenda. We have therefore introduced a series of pre meetings where we examine work programme, consider content of agenda and discuss issues and strategy - no decisions are made of course. These meetings usually take place a fortnight before the PC meeting though we may need more if workload increases. We usually meet at someone's house to do this.

Some of our Members are 'nervous' about such meetings and worry that they are not 'legal'. They are concerned that parishioners will view these as secret/behind closed doors meetings. Indeed they are not public and held in private premises, but they are by no means meant to be secret in any way. I have advised that pre-meetings and working meetings to help take business and items forward is accepted good practice, so long as decisions are only made properly and democratically at the Parish Council meeting itself.

It was suggested that I seek your clarifications.

Many thanks

Steve

Reply of same date from EH

They are certainly not illegal but are very much good practice - as long as everyone is clear what they are for, i.e. agenda planning and meeting process preparation and that they are NOT for making of decisions on issues.
E