The proper officer shall at least 3 clear days before a meeting of the council serve on councillors

Question

A signed summons confirming the time ,place and the agenda put it does not say also to deliver any information in the pack does this mean the clerk does not have to supply the paper work with in the 3 clear days and can give it to us at the meeting

Answer 1

Depends on your size, if your income or expenditure is below £25K then you should be following the transparency code and over that and under £200K it is good practice to follow it.  How can you as Councillors research the matters being discussed and give a decision if the papers are not given out until the meeting.  If your meetings are like ours you will probably not have time to digest the papers at the meeting and make an informed decision.

Comments

We always receive the paper work in the pack with 3 clear day the clerk alway forgets to put some information in the pack and then leave it out for us to read on the night but the above is what our standing orders say but I thought all information had to be delivered with 3 clear days

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I think there's a world of difference between "forgetting" to put something in the supporting papers pack and a report not being available in time.  The Transparency Code requires that supporting papers be made available to the public as well as councillors but doesn't define what those supporting papers are and doesn't actually indicate what should be made available to councillors.  In my opinion, if a paper is available it should accompany the pack and even sent separately if forgotten but if one is not available, then clearly it can't be sent.  The fall back position is that I would ask for an item to be deferred if I didn't think I'd had enough time or information to make an informed decision at the meeting.

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There are also instances where the report cannot be provided at the same time as the meeting paperwork - for example, a bank reconciliation which can only be done after the month end or a report from a 3rd party which has not arrived in time.

Answer 2

The principle is unbelievably simple yet apparently broadly misunderstood, intentionally misused or victim of sub-optimal clerical performance.
The agenda - and all supporting papers - should be made available to Cllrs AND the public in accordance with the statutory requirements.
Why (!) why would any council or staff member be unable to adopt this very simple principle which is enshrined within the Nolan principles of openness and transparency.
There will be very specific and rare (unless misused) occasions where discretion or redaction might be appropriate but the absolute over riding start point must be to publish.
The public need just as much notice as Cllrs to review and research proposals so supporting papers should be either on the notice board and / or the website.
Anything less than that is indefensible.