Publish agendas of meeting

Question

We have always published our agendas on local notice boards and since the use of the web site published it on there, just recently a new clerk has said that we do not have to publish our notice of agendas on notice boards but just on the website, I think this is wrong as not everyone one has access to a computer and some have little access, Agendas are far more noticeable on a notice board but who is correct on this?

Answer 1

Your clerk is incorrect on this one (and that is coming from a Clerk)

Schedule 12 (10) of the Local Government Act 1972 clearly states that an agenda has to be "fixed in some conspicuous place in the parish" and this has been taken to be a noticeboard or the office window - somewhere that can physically display the agenda.

I think where you clerk is coming from is the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities 2014 which requires councils to have a website and publish their information on there.  But this is in addition to the LGS 1972, not an alternative.

The LGA 1972 criteria has not been rescinded or replaced by the Transparency Code.

As an aside, the Clerk is required to take instruction from the council and if you council require them to publish the agenda on a noticeboard / office window, then they have to do it.

Comments

Hi Mrs Abster
Not good for someone who is being paid £38 ph

Answer 2

During the Covid pandemic the requirement to fix a notice in a public place was changed to instead publish it on the principal authority's website. This was later amended to allow the notice to also be published on a parish council's own website. See SLCC guidance document: "Amendment to The Local Authorities and Police & Crime Panels (Coronavirus) Regulations. <https://www.slcc.co.uk/amendment-to-the-local-authorities-and-police-crime-panels-coronavirus-regulations/ > Published: 30 July 2020

The dispensation to allow posting the notice to the Internet was removed on 6 May 2021. See page 22 of LGA guidance document: “Current status of local authority powers and duties which were introduced or changed as the result of coronavirus legislation.” <https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/22.02.Coronavirus-regulations-review-TP04.pdf > Published Feb 2022.