Can a Parish Council dictate the format of a Parish Meeting?

Question

I had thought that there are rules pertaining to a Parish Meeting i.e. that the Parishioners can put items on the agenda, to discuss those items listed and vote on them. At our Parish Council meeting the Chair stated that we will serve alcohol, there will be no agenda and the style of meeting will be a casual format. Parishioners have asked for a meeting where they have an agenda and are able to discus items in a more formal manner. Can the Chair dictate like this?

Answer 1

At aschool parish meeting, where there is a parish council an agenda should be published by the clerk, and requests for items to be include should be addressed to the clerk. Alcohol must not be served during the meeting, (trying remember the exact section of the LGA, but is prohibited).

Comments

Ignore aschool in original answer

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Wow!Thank you 'somebody else' for such a speedy reply. However, how do I or the Parishioners  deal with an intransigent Chair? Who do we turn to ? The clerk backs the Chair despite having met with parishioners who have asked for items to be on the agenda. In fact at the Parish Meeting there will be no agenda, its going to be drinks and a chat for people to get to know their councillors. Nice idea, but not a parish meeting - just to not know how to achieve a correctly run Parish Meeting.

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Correct. A nice idea but not a parish meeting. There must be a parish meeting and if your clerk acquiesces to this chairman's diktat that this meeting as proposed constitutes a parish meeting s/he should be sacked. For support and advice contact your county's Association of Local Councils, or see CPALC, and report your clerk to the clerk's professional body. Report your chairman to your monitoring officer.

Answer 2

For goodness sake! See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/70/schedule/12/part/III  para 14 (5). No alcohol, and no, a chairman cannot dictate like that. Point to the relevant paragraph I quote and tell him to get his act together. There does not need to be an agenda as far as I know and parishioners can raise matters at the meeting. It is not a parish council meeting.

PS A chairman has no special powers over and above any other councillor. Their role is to run a meeting and that's about it, other than doing what a councillor might ordinarily do. Any chairman who assumes some kind of majesty over a council should be brought down to earth.