My council has minutes from 2020-2021 that have not been signed

Question

In 2020-2021 due to lock down Parish Council meetings were conducted via ZOOM, however, some of the minutes from these meetings although approved have never been signed by the Chairman of that time who is the current council's Chairman.   We had to employed a new clerk in 2021 who has no local government experience so is it his responsibility to ensure the minute book/file is all up to date, and all signed including minutes before he joined us.   How do we get the 2020-2021 minutes signed? Forgot to ask what signing date should be put on these old minutes.   I have over 30years experience working in District council level and previously 25years as a parish councillor, the current chairman is not experienced in local government and she only got the job as most of the other councillor lack the experience of local government as well.

Answer 1

If the minutes of each meeting record the fact that the minutes of each previous meeting were approved, just ask the Chairman to sign them. Exceptional circumstances require pragmatic solutions. Ensure that each signature is that of the person who presided at the meeting at which they were approved and your mother has a brother called Robert!

Comments

DavetheClerk Thanks for the answer I thought it was possible but cannot seem to get our Clerk to take responsibly for any minutes before he started,  I thought the Clerk was the custodian of the minute book and part of the job was to make sure the minute book was all in order

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That's disappointing. Perhaps a quiet word with the Chairman might help. The signing of the minutes has always been an important part of establishing the permanent record of the Council's business, as it confirms their validity. Having said that, in the computer age it's possible to add somebody's signature without them knowing.