Council minutes omit details of a decision but council has informed village and individuals of it

Question

At the (well attended)  Annual Parish Meeting the Council Chair announced that a week previously the council had decided to withdraw from running a number of activities (library / room hire / play area / council office / chaning room and toilets / football pitches / etc) by October 2022.   Since then the council has written to certain entities informing them of this decision.  It has not written to the charity that owns the land and buildings nor consulted them (or any users of the facitities) prior to the announcement.  After waiting for the minutes of the meeting to appear on the council web page, there are no details of the decision taken - which was taken in closed session.  Given the council has made public its decision (although only verbally and sporadically to various entities), what legal authority does it have to omit the decision from the minutes of the meeting?

Answer 1

I’d suggest a closer look at the eligibility of the subjects to be covered in the closed session.

Answer 2

Assuming the decision was correctly taken in private session (and I too would question the validity of that), the only impact of a private session is that the discussion is in private but the decision isn't.   In practice this should mean that the minute might be a little brief but it should still be there.

Comments

DB  - we agree, this goes against SLCC / NALC and other guidance.  Who knows what is going on in council - but it all seems less than professional.

Answer 3

It seems rather strange that such a topic of possible far reaching consequences on the community was made the subject of a closed session. Whilst there may possibly have been sections of a discussion and debate that required the sensitivity of a closed session surely an agenda item prompting the matter would have allowed representation from the public on the matter. As a PC exists to ensure the facilitation of the communities wishes and aspirations the removal of such funding would require at least a public explanation why the council thought it necessary followed by a calculation of what precept increase would be likely to retain such services. More openness not more secrecy.

Comments

Mentorman  Thanks.  I think this is a case of a council witholding information to disadvantage a third party (the charity).  The council rolled this our in front of the public a week after deciding to do it, without informing the charity - which then had to field questions from the public on something they had just been told would happen.

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Mentorman as usual I agree 100% with your comments

Answer 4

To make a decision like that without notice shows how dysfunctional the Council is
Were the documents on which the decision was based made available if not request a copy

I’m a bit confused as to whether the minutes of the meeting have been published or not if they have what do they show ?

Comments

Jules  The documents on which the decision was made are not available but an FOI will have to be submiitted, and a trainscript of the chairs  announcement is not available either.  The minutes of the meeting are on the council website, awaiting sign off at the next full council meeting.  The minutes note that ...... 'Councillor XX proposed actions, and these were resolved.   The charity would be informed after the annual parish meeting.......
We consider that being informed after could mean 2023 or within the next decade (as that yas yet to happen).

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Use “ whatdotheyknow “ for your FOI request so it’s in the public domain
Also can you provide a link to the minutes ?

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Jules - Sent along with some other stuff