parish council does not put up the minutes any where in the village. Is this illegal?

Question

Our parish council does not put up the parish council minutes and say they do not have to?

Are they correct?

Answer 1

Minutes don't have to be put up on noticeboards as logistically, the noticeboards would have to be huge (we have 6 meetings a month with all the various committees).  But they do have to be available to the public under the Freedom of Information publication scheme.  So members of the public have the right to view them or request them once they have been approved at the next meeting.  It is also appropriate to send a copy of the minutes to the local library for their reference section.

It is good practice to publish them on the Parish Council website and indeed, in order to obtain a Local Council Award, they have to be there in perpetuity.

There is no acceptable reason as to why minutes should not be made available but there is no statutory guidance as to what is required (except FOI legislation).  What does your parish council do?

Comments

Thank you.
They do put them on a new website but there are still many who do not have access to the internet.
We have a meeting 10 times/year (2/3 pages of minutes max) but since the 'new boys on the block' moved into the area there is a clique on the PC who dictate most things and the posting of the minutes has stopped regardless of what people say. So..... who is right??

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Parish councils are obliged to publish on a freely available website draft minutes from all formal meetings not later than one month after the meeting has taken place. (Source: The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities - which apples to Parish Councils with a turnover of less than £25K and is mandatory - see paras 29 and 32.)
The Parish Council is free to put a copy on a notice board if it decides to. Presumably the 'clique' you refer to is in a majority?

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Thanks Old Tom for your input. I do not understand why it is not mandatory to put the minutes in the notice board for those who can't or don't want to be online. Yes they are a majority with the weaker ones following like lambs to the ......

Answer 2

There are already good answers to this question. I would just like to add that citizens have a statutory right to inspect council minutes, in addition to the rights conferred by the Freedom of Information Act. If you still have one, lodging minutes with the local library is a good way to provide for people who find internet access difficult.