Questions about town and parish councils
Follow Councillor Q&A on X/Twitter

Follow us on X/Twitter

0 votes
My Parish does not have a Parish council nor a functioning Parish Meeting. Noone wants to be elected as Chair and we no longer have a Clerk. If we do not hold Meeting to agree budgets, precepts etc, does the District Council step in to manage these things?
by (350 points)

3 Answers

0 votes
Need a bit of clarification please.  Are you a parish council (with the power to raise a precept) or a parish meeting?
by (18.0k points)
We are a Parish Meeting.
0 votes
Section 91 of the LGA 1972 states:-

"Where there are so many vacancies in the office of parish or community councillor that the parish or community council are unable to act, the district council [or Welsh principal council] may by order appoint persons to fill all or any of the vacancies until other councillors are elected and take up office."

In the absence of any other reference, I presume this arrangement might apply to parish meetings, although the legislation gives the district council a power, not a duty, to intervene, so in the case of a parish meeting, they might decide not to. Without a functioning parish meeting, no expenditure is permitted and no precept can be set for future years.
by (52.9k points)
Many thanks, your answer is very helpful.
Not sure this applies to a parish meeting.
0 votes
A district council has the power to anticipate a precept if the precept demand isn't made when they were expecting one but I'm not sure they would want use this power for a parish meeting that wasn't functioning.
by (510 points)

Welcome to Town & Parish Councillor Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of the community. All genuine questions and answers are welcome. Follow us on Twitter to see the latest questions as they are asked - click on the image button above or follow @TownCouncilQA. Posts from new members may be delayed as we are unfortunately obliged to check each one for spam. Spammers will be blacklisted.

You may find the following links useful:

We have a privacy policy and a cookie policy.

Clares Cushions logo Peacock cushion

Clare's Cushions creates beautiful hand made cushions and home accessories from gorgeous comtemporary fabrics. We have a fantastic selection of prints including Sophie Allport and Orla Kiely designs and most covers can be ordered either alone or with a cushion inner. Buying new cushions is an affordable and effective way to update your home interior, they're also a great gift idea. Visit our site now

2,894 questions
5,615 answers
7,948 comments
10,028 users
Google Analytics Alternative