Should acceptance of apologies be part of a town council agenda?

Question

We always had accept apologies as part of the agenda. This has just changed and we now only record those present and those absent. Which is correct?  It is not in our standing orders and it is causing some discomfort with some councillors.

Answer 1

Apologies need to be recorded and voted upon. This is because you need to record 6 months unauthorised absence.

E.g. the Parish Council may agree that a councillor KNOWN to be battling cancer be authorised not to attend meetings, as authorised absence doesn't count towards the 6 month rule, but does enforce the rule against a councillor who just doesn't turn up for no good reason.

Comments

Absolutely.  There is no element of discretion in the six-month rule.  Section 85 states:-
"...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."

If the reason for absence is not approved at the time of the first meeting missed, the absence should be treated as unapproved.  An accidental or unforeseen absence at a subsequent meeting could then lead to an unneccessary disqualification.

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"Authorised" and "Approved" effectively means that the Council accept the stated reason for absence of a Cllr by resolution.    I don't think there is any obligation for them to apologise in advance.

Answer 2

Maybe it should just be titled "Notifications of absence" :  Not all Cllrs send their apologies, some might feel if they can't attend that they are not obliged to apologise in advance..

Comments

You can title it as you like, however, the must their absence - without notice would be regarded as unauthorised. Those who send their apologies - and the council accept, would be authorised.

The 6 month clock, might not sound an important element - until a member is getting close to the wire and the clerk needs to be able to demonstrate (for their own piece of mind and legal challenge) that the absences were correctly unauthorised.

Answer 3

In our parish council, apologies are noted but not approved and the minutes clearly state this.  This is because in the past councillors have not turned up, not apologised and then once in a blue moon, sent apologies and these were approved; therefore resetting the 6 month clock.

In order to deal with this, as the council was effectively working with less councillors than it should, a resolution was made to not accept any apologies.  In a harsh world, you could argue that if someone had a long term illness that prevented them from attending one single meeting in six months, then they should be resigning for the sake of their recovery and for the benefit of the council.

Comments

That's interesting.  Has it resulted in any vacancies, or did it achieve the objective of focussing the mind?  One of my parishes meets quarterly, which adds a whole new dimension to the six-month rule, as missing a single meeting can result in disqualification.

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The difference between your council and mine is that we meet every month and I can't say that it has necessarily focussed anyone's mind as we are having elections next month so those that are tired of the parish council are not attending anyway!  
The decision did lead to a forced resignation but as this happened within 6 months of the May 2019 elections, there was no requirement to co-opt or hold a by election.

I do think that with the new parish council in place in May, this more strict attitude will work but it could equally lead to more regular co-options.  That said if the rule is in place before the new councillors are elected, they know what they have let themselves in for.

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So whats to stop a councillor who has been forced to resign, and after the Casual Vacancy is advertised, forcing the council into an election (10 signatures needed) and then putting themselves up for re-election?

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Nothing, that's democracy for you.
In our situation the councillor was forced to resign but she understood the reasoning and accepted it.

Why would someone who has been forced to resign, following their non-attendance then force a by election at the cost of £5500 in our instance only to hope to regain the seat?  Unless they really had a grudge against the council and wanted to cost them money...?

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Your Parish is very lucky to have so many willing to stand then :-)
There is generally a shortage of people with any interest in standing in our area.