Committee vacancies

Question

Our AGM, and an opportunity for our many new Councillors to try to get a committee place, isn’t til June. There is a number of Committee meetings scheduled before then which despite having vacancies would be just quorate. It has been suggested that those meetings should be held after the AGM so that the new Committee members are in place. Is there any best practice on this matter please?

Answer 1

If you have just had elections, (in most areas), then those committees and their membership fell yesterday (8th May, election plus 4 days accounting for the bank holiday), so your parish doesn't have any committees or membership thereof, so they cannot act.

They must wait until the AGM to be put back into place.

Comments

Our Council has a number of Committee meetings too including at least 2 planning meetings. Does anyone know if there a way around this issue please?

Answer 2

It is incorrect to call it the Annual meeting of a Town or Parish Council an "AGM"   but many Clerks don't realise that..

If the meetings are Quorate then cancelling them in advance should be done via a resolution by full Council.  Any meeting schedule docs should be amended accordingly.  Personally I think it is a bad suggestion and it raises questions about what the motive is for doing it.

Comments

Just to clarify, what are you suggesting is a bad idea?

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Failing to hold the schedule committee meetings until after the annual parish meeting takes place is a bad idea in my view.

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The reply from Somebodyelse suggests that Committees do not exist until after the AGM. There are important but not urgent issues to be dealt with and proper procedures need to be in place so that matters are not left open to challenge. There is also a possibility that newly elected Councillors will be asking for a review of the committee structures to take into account new responsibilities. I will add that the date for the AGM had been moved to later in the month and then would have been held before the scheduled committee meeting.