Disqualification period?

Question

For a Parish Councillor to be disqualified do they have to have missed meetings for six calendar months?

Would it count if they came to a meeting that was held 6 months and 3 days after their last attended?

Answer 1

LGA 1972 says:

Section 85 Vacation of office by failure to attend meetings.

(1)Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, if a member of a local authority fails throughout a period of six consecutive months from the date of his last attendance to attend any meeting of the authority, he shall, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the authority before the expiry of that period, cease to be a member of the authority.

(2)Attendance as a member at a meeting of any committee or sub-committee of the authority, or at a meeting of any joint committee, joint board or other body by whom for the time being any of the functions of the authority are being discharged, or who were appointed to advise the authority on any matter relating to the discharge of their functions, and attendance as representative of the authority at a meeting of any body of persons, shall be deemed for the purposes of subsection (1) above to be attendance at a meeting of the authority.

Comments

Thank you. We next meet 6 months and three days after they last attended. So far as I know they have tendered an apology for most of the missing dates but not offered a reason for missing.

---

At our council the clerk insists on a reason for absence, but its never mentioned at meetings or in the minutes. (We don't want the fact that a cllr is on holiday to be mentioned in a public meeting for instance). Clearly personal information shouldn't be mentioned. We have one cllr who has a severely ill husband and would often not turn up at the last minute, so apologies are always given automatically in that case.

---

For the council to approve an absence, a reason must be given (although I guess it could be treated as confidential and given to members without being published, although this is probably bending the rules). The approval of an absence requires a resolution and a vote, completed before the end of the six months period.