Question

If a parish meeting is held and votes or decisions are taken who implements them?

Answer 1

It is normally the Clerk but in some cases it could be delegated to a Councillor, it depends what was decided.

Answer 2

As a Parish Meeting is called to hold the PC to account then it would be safe to assume that decisions made or questions requiring answering would be directed at the PC and for them to act upon.

Answer 3

Sorry, going to disagree.  A Parish Meeting rather than a parish council meeting is actually nothing to do with the parish council so not the clerk's job to do anything.  Nor can the parish council be required to take notice of any resolution of the parish meeting although I agree that it would be a foolish parish council that did not take into account what the parish meeting has resolved or said.  The parish meeting itself (presumably those who convened it) are responsible for carrying out any decisions of that meeting.

Comments

The Annual Parish Meeting is a legally required meeting at which the PC are required to report to the electorate on their tenure and to have an open meeting at which the electorate can raise whatever matters they feel are justified and upon which the council must give requisite answers. These responses do not have to be met at the meeting and can be investigated and responded to at a suitable future time to allow examination  and decision making by the PC

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I've looked through the Local Government Act 1972 and can find no reference to the parish council being "required to report to the electorate on their tenure" or that there is a requirement for the parish council to give responses to any issues raised.  The Act states that the parish council "may" convene a meeting (not must convene it) nor is there any provision for matters to be acted upon by the parish council.  The regulations for parish meetings, with or without a parish council, are contained in schedule 12 of the 1972 Act.

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The legal requirement for the holding of a parish meeting annually chaired by the Pc chair within specified dates in itself must be the framework for accountability to the electorate. Especially as any proposals and polls taken are only open to electorate of the parish to make. As the immediate authority of the parish then it surely falls to the PC to resolve such matters or if outside their powers to facilitate it with the next level of authority.
If not then why is a parish meeting a legal requirement?

Answer 4

If the meeting calls for a Parish Poll, the Principal Authority is obliged to instigate it but there is no obligation to comply.  For virtually anything else there is no obligation on a town or parish council to implement an action. If the Parish meeting was called by Electors one or more of them would have a moral duty to implement the action, but would not be legally obliged to fulfill it

Comments

If there is no obligation, moral or legal to either take notice of or act upon the wishes of the electorate then why is there legislation requiring an annual parish meeting?
That is the question that needs answering surely?

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Interesting point. Thinking about it further, a town or parish council can only carry out actions that were approved by resolution, but there are many instances where resolutions are not enacted.  There is no legal statute that can be applied in most cases to make the council enact them apart from refusal to enact a resolution to follow the instructions of the Information Commissioner.