Inquorate or not

Question

We are a parish council of eleven councillors but at present we only have seven, a councillor proposed an extraordinary meeting where only three councillors turned up, I believe that the meeting was inquorate although some are saying because we only have seven councillors it was quorate, our district council legal section say it was not quorate but have not confirmed this in writing so the question is, was it quorate or not, any advice please.

Answer 1

Check your standing orders where it should be defined and is on the number of council places not the number of elected councillors( or co-opted) sitting on the council

Comments

Hi, thanks that is what I thought and was confirmed by someone in the legal section on our district council but it seems that they are reluctant to put it in writing, we have some new councillors from May this year who seem to have their own agenda for being on the PC

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Damn those “new” Cllrs with there disruptive ways….

If they don’t understand quorate / non quorate that’s a very different issue to having “their own agenda.”

“Agendas” often arise when incumbents become entrenched.
Don’t fear change EMBRACE it - love & peace

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When I say having their own agenda, one is a small time developer and he's trying to get PP atm on something local and whether he thinks he can get support from the PC because he's on it, I think he's also promoted by a bit of a troublemaker in the village, that's what I meant, another councillor wants to be chair of the PC and will do most things to get it

Answer 2

Agree the meeting was inquorate.  The minimum is one third of the number of seats, rounded up, so your minimum is 4 but you can set it higher so check standing orders.