Can the agenda be changed by the parish-clerk once sent to councillors

Question

I am a relatively new inexperienced parish-councillor who is very frustrated with how things are run so over the coming weeks I will be asking a number of questions.

Yesterday we received our agenda for next week but it was not published.

Today the agenda has been changed and now published.

Can the parish-clerk cordially summon councillors one day and then send us a revised agenda the next?

Cheers

Answer 1

The agenda can be changed PROVIDING the councillors receive the final version within the statutory timescale ie.  3 clear days of the meeting.

I did this - occasionally - as a clerk when, for example an important communication arrived from the principal authority just after I had sent out the agenda but with sufficient time to give proper notice of the meeting.

I hope that helps.

Compare the 2 agendas to see where the change occurs.  That may throw some light on why it has happened.

Comments

I concur.  Provided the final version is sent with three clear days notice then it can be changed.  When I was clerk, it was always a bit of a balancing act between wanting to give as much notice as possible of the agenda yet needing to deal with things that might be urgent such as planning applications for example.  Anything arriving after the cut off point would have to wait or there would have to be an additional meeting arranged.

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So if the meeting is this coming monday, what it is the cut off please?

We got the final agenda yesterday and it was published.

I thought this was legal and today we got another agenda but I thought it was illegal as you needed 3 clear days and could not include weekends??

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Three clear days does not include the day the notice is published, the day of the meeting or Sundays (and public holidays), so for a Monday meeting, the three clear days counting backwards are the preceding Saturday, Friday and Thursday, so the agenda must be published no later then the Wednesday before the meeting.