Can Councillors carry out roles?

Question

Can Parish Councillors be given delegated roles whereby if a certain issue say, highways related is on the agenda - it is then known and minuted that a particular Councillor is then to look into the matter/action required?

Answer 1

Effectively you are referring to a working party or task and finish where councillors are tasked with investigating a matter before council and reporting back to council facts and information for decision making. As with all such groups it is advisable to have more than one councillor working alone to return balanced findings to council. No councilor should ever be given delegated power alone to act on behalf of the council only committees.

Answer 2

There are times when a councillor is appointed as parish council representative on outside bodies - for example public transport user forums or governor for a school so they can act on their own.  However, they cannot make decisions on behalf of the council, so there is a limit to their delegation - they have the authority to represent but not act on behalf of the council in these instances.

I have some Councillors who do research to present back to the council on matters that they have knowledge and expertise on at the start of projects but once the project is formally adopted by the council, then it is passed to me to action and take forward.