Do draft committee minutes carry the same weight as approved minutes

Question

At a recent full Parish Council meeting recommendations were accepted from a committee based on the draft minutes of the committee meeting. Some members of the committee were not happy with the draft minutes which were due for approval at the next committee meeting. Was it right that the full council went ahead and accepted the recommendations based on disputed draft minutes and not approved minutes? It was approving a contentious application for an outdoor event which was taking place the day after the full council meeting.

Answer 1

Yes, because once decisions are made they are minuted.  Minutes are a record of the meeting and decisions made.  Once the decision has been made the action can be carried out.  Some Councils may only meet every two months so the delay waiting for the minutes to be formally approved would mean that nothing would get done.

Comments

Many thanks for your response. Since asking the question I have seen another reference where it states that until minutes are approved they are not considered a true reflection of the meeting. This was especially important in the situation I described as had the Full Parish Council waited for the approved minutes with changes that the attending councillors wanted they may not have reached the same decision.

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Newby I’m with you on this minutes have to be approved and signed before they are valid

But ParishCouncillors comments about a two month delay are also valid

Had the majority of the Councillors at the full Council meeting  been concerned about the accuracy of the information they were acting on they should have voted against the motion
In this day and age there’s no reason why all meetings shouldn’t be recorded.

Plus that draft minutes are circulated within 48 hours as some PC’s already do

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I agree with the comments made here but would add that given the committee were making a "recommendation", the actual decision was taken by full council and it is within the remit of full council to accept or reject the recommendation of the committee anyway.  Presumably there was some comment made at that meeting by those members of the committee who felt the minutes were inaccurate?  I'd argue that it's not whether the draft minutes carry weight but whether full council were appropriately informed to make a decision.