Local Elections on 1st May

Question

Local elections are 1st May 2025 - the Chair has insisted that the parish annual meeting must take place that day because it was put on a meeting list published after last year's annual meeting.
The town hall is being used as a polling station.
Some people are standing in the local elections for county ......they can't be in two places at once.....any suggestions?

Answer 1

Change the date.

Comments

If only it were that simple. Chair insists it stays on that date.

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So, propose a motion to change it and the council, not the chair, decides the outcome.  Chair holds no more power, generally other than to chair a meeting, than any other Cllr.

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chair won't put it on the agenda and the clerk claims she has final say of what goes on the agenda.....so brick wall

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It really is time that the rules of governance for parish councils were given a good looking at and the many vagaries, contradictions and conflicts addressed.

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Xian, it's not a brick wall, you still have the option of calling an extraordinary meeting with an agenda compiled by those calling it if the chair refuses to do so.  What you need for that to happen is the prerequisite number of Cllrs required to call an extra ordinary meeting.  That provision is exactly suited to the type of circumstance you describe where a chair and clerk seek to impose their personal will upon a council which, collectively, has a different will.  What you need for it to work is enough Cllrs that agree to call the extra meeting.  If you don't have that, it won't work but similarly, if you don't have that then it is likely that there is not a 'general consensus' of the council anyway.